Make your own Christmas cards

• 8 1/2" by 11" card stock
• Scrapbook background paper, decorative or wrapping paper
• thin ribbon
• small gold jingle bells
• glue stick or adhesive

Step One: Layout your text! The first thing you need to do is get the words printed onto your card stock. You will start by using either desktop publishing software or for the less computer savvy, try using a manual layout. You can choose to lay out your text in the same manner as I have done in the example to the left, or you can get creative and change it up. Never be afraid to play around with it a bit.
To set it up as I did, you will measure 1" over from the center (fold) of the card, and then center your text between the margins. Also make sure that your text is aligned in a centered position.
To make your own Christmas card you could even go a step forward from there and design a second page of text to add a verse, poem or message to the inside of the card. Otherwise just leave it blank and hand write your message to the inside of the card.

Step Two: Print it! You can choose to print straight onto your card stock from your computer's printer. If you will make your own Christmas cards in large quantities, it may be easier or more cost efficient to print the text onto white paper and then have it copied at a local copy shop.This can also be a good choice as they will have an array of different colors and weights of card stock for you to pick from. This eliminates the need to go out and buy any extra paper. If you have a special paper you want to use most copy shops will also copy onto paper you have provided. An added advantage is the other services they may provide for you such as folding or cutting paper for you.

Step Three: Fold you cards. If you are using a heavier weight card stock you may need to have it scored in order to achieve a clean fold. Most copy centers will do this for you. If not you can also purchase a scoring tool at most office supply or craft supply stores.
If the paper is a lighter weight card stock you may try folding by hand. If the fold comes out slightly wrinkled, one way to combat this would be to run a straight edge (such as a ruler) along the folded edge to help flatten it out.

Step Four: Creating paper embellishments! Here I have layered two separate papers to form the decoration on the front of the card. To make your own Christmas cards feel free to experiment with any kind of papers or textures that may strike your fancy!
Here I used a wrapping paper for the bottom layer of paper.
There is not necessarily a need to measure how big of pieces of paper you will need for this. I simply held the wrapping paper up to the card to get an idea of how big a piece I would need to cut out.
Once you achieve a good size use this piece as a template to cut out many pieces in the same size. You can use a paper cutter at the end to do any trimming to achieve the exact size you may want.
Next I went over the outer edge only with a pair of craft scissors.

For the top layer of paper I used a scrapbooking background paper. Again, no need for an exact measurement. I measured starting from an inch of the fold, to the edge of where I thought the bottom layer would end just to come up with a rough measurement. I cut out my first square and held it against the card along with the bottom layer, and trimmed it til I came up with a good measurement. I then used this as a template to cut out the rest of the squares as I did in the above step.

Step Five: Adhere you embellishments. I used a glue stick to adhere both layers of paper. This works wonders with wrapping papers or lighter weight papers. If your chosen papers are a very heavy weight you may want to try a craft glue instead.
I started by attaching the wrapping paper aligning it against the edge of the card to leave a border of card stock showing. Next I just aligned the top layer of paper between the 1" margin where the text falls to the edge of the wrapping paper, again leaving a border peaking through.

Step Six: Adding ribbon embellishments! I used a very small paper punch to make two small holes in the upper center of the card. You could also use a large sewing needle if you prefer.
I then laced the ribbon through so that both ends come out through the front. I added small gold jingle bells to the ends of ribbon. Make a knot on at the end of each ribbon about 1/2" up the bottom to keep the bells from falling off. To keep the ribbons looking clean just trim a very small edge diagonally off the bottom of each end of ribbon.

Other tips to make your own Christmas cards...

* Play around with different colors and papers. Different combinations will make drastically different cards!

* Use different positions to place your text, or different fonts!

* Instead of jingle bells make your own Christmas cards using something different to embellish on your ribbons. Try tiny pine cones! or cotton pom-poms!

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