Making my own Christmas cards this year - ideas please!

[penguinaballerina]

We have gold blank cards, coloured corrugated paper and tissue paper and a few stick-on bits and bobs.

I know Christmas sounds a long time off but I think I will need to start now to make 50 of them in time!

I just need some inspiration for the actual designs. They need to be simple but effective. And thin enough to post in a standard envelope without paying extra postage.

There must be people out there who have been doing this for years?

with a gold background I wont suggest my usual reindeer cards. Instead how about making Christmas trees. Use the corrugated card as a pot - tissue paper strips for green and bits as baubles.

glad I am not alone in getting ready for Xmas I luvvvvv it !

Could you do potato prints with the right paints?
We always do prints of nice Christmassy things, and then if you like paint and decorate on top (and of course supervised small children excel at this). Angels, trees, stars etc. People still talk of dh's three tone Christmas pudding...

we did mini red cards one year, with one of those spike things you stick through teh paper in the shape of a christmas tree - am not really explaining this welll. ]

bit like this (brad - that's the spike thing)

hmm, will be watching this thread for ideas to plunder!

Best Christmas cards I ever did (IMO) were the ones I did the first year I started making them.

Stripe of red paint across the middle, using a medium sized decorating brush (as opposed to srtisits brush). When dry, used snowman stencil and gold or silver pen to draw 3 snowmen on top of red paint. Write "Merry Christmas" underneath. By doing each of the 3 tasks as a batch job I managed to get them done really quickly too. Painting ~ 10 sec per card x 70 = 700 sec = 12 mins + stenciling = 1 min per card = 75 mins + writing = 10 secs per card = 12 mins. Total = 12 + 70 + 12 = just over hour and a half (spread out over 4 days)!

I was going to do a big stripe of dark blue paint down the middle and put snowflakes or stars on it, fixing them in place with those foamy things, so they are lifted off the paper a bit then lots of glitter.

I do like the idea of potato printing. Then DS can do it. And then, if it looks rubbish no-one'll care

Great ideas - will be stealing some!

Oooh, I am feeling a bit more inspired now. Thanks everyone!

Oooh, I am feeling a bit more inspired now. Thanks everyone!