Creating your own Christmas cards is a great way to put a personal touch on your yearly mail out. For some, Christmas cards is their only connection to old friends and far away family members, and so it is at that time of year, they choose to send a special card to remind them that they are loved and thought of. As a scrapbooker, creating your own cards comes naturally for many, but for those that don’t feel quite so creatively inclined, this should help.
The first thing you will need to consider is what size you would like to make your handmade cards. For some, I go with a pretty small size. And then for others I go for a much larger size. Here are a few dimensions and how to cut your paper to get them
You need to start out with a piece of 12 x 12 paper.
For smaller cards you can get 6 cards out of one 12 x 12 sheet. However, I remind you that they are quite small. (finished product is 4”H x 3”W). You will need to make three 4” strips of paper. You will then need to cut those 4” strips in the center (at the 6” mark). Folding the cards in half at that point will garner you a 4”x3” card. You will wind up with six from one sheet.
You can change sizes by cutting a 12 x 12 sheet in half, that will give you two 6”x6” cards.
There are a few other ways to get more from your paper by making a variety of cuts. Cut one 4” strip from a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock. Take the 8”x12” piece and cut the 12” width side 3 times. This will have you ending up with three 4”x8” strips. Fold them in half and you have three 4”x4” cards. Take the remaining 4” strip (the first cut you made), and you have a choice here. Either cut at the 8” mark leaving a leftover 4”x4” piece of cardstock to throw into your scrap pile, or make one cut at the 6” mark and you have created two 4”x3” card. You either wind up with four or five cards from one sheet of cardstock.
After you have cut out the cards its time to start decorating them with papers, stamps and embellishments, which will be in a later article with some examples.
Are you planning on making your own cards this year?