Crafting Christmas Cards
Nothing says “you’re special” more than a hand-crafted card. We’ve been busily making our own, one-off Christmas cards with the Christmas Craft Bundle from Design Bundles.
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If you’re a regular reader of the GinGin & Roo blog then you’ll know we love to find ways to reduce our waste and recycle what we can. But we do still enjoy crafts and making things.
And with Christmas just around the corner I’m already thinking of ways we can show our loved ones how much they mean to us, without buying shed-loads of mass-produced stuff we neither need or want.
You may have seen my recent post about using online stationery to cut down on the number of Christmas cards that go to landfill every year. But then there are close friends and family that we will probably always send actual greetings cards to.
GinGin & Roo love making cards. Well, pictures of any kind really. And they love drawing and colouring and sticking and making things.
It got me thinking that perhaps I could make my own Christmas cards this year. I’m no pro-crafter that’s for sure. And that’s what makes the Christmas Craft Bundle from Design Bundles perfect for amateur crafters like me.
I might actually be able to make Christmas cards for my nearest and dearest that I don’t have to pretend the kids made!
Look What I made!
There are so many different and beautiful designs included with the Christmas Craft Bundle that you really will be able to create your own unique design by mixing and matching to your heart’s content.
I made three different Christmas card designs. But you could use these graphics, templates, mock-ups, patterns, illustrations and craft files for any craft project: bespoke Christmas baubles; Christmas signs; mugs, cushions, t-shirts, framed prints. The possibilities are endless.
These are the cards I made. GinGin likes the silver sparkly one best. I think the retro Beetle is my fave.
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How Did I Do It?
Once I’d decided which of the design templates I wanted to use, I downloaded the digital files to my computer in a new folder to keep everything nice and orderly.
It’s simple enough.
Each design is sent in various formats, including SVG, DXF, EPS and PNG.
(The files can be used with Cricut and other paper-cutting machines too. So you can use these templates for intricate cut-outs and embossing too! How fabulous. I may ask Santa for a Cricut machine this year!)
Using mainly the PNG versions of the graphics and illustrations I’d chosen, I opened them all in Photoshop.
It’s worth mentioning that you don’t have to use Photoshop. You can use these files as they are with an online design tool, such as Canva.
I only used Photoshop because I wanted to change some of the colours and, as a photographer, Photoshop is what I’m comfortable using.
So, I opened my files in Photoshop and altered some of the colours from black to silver/grey or rose gold or red. Then I exported all the altered images as new PNG files and uploaded them to Canva.
I could have made the entire Christmas card designs in Photoshop, but Canva is a pretty useful and easy-to-use design tool.
Using a 5×7 card template I added in my altered graphics, which I’d chosen from the Christmas Craft Bundle, and moved things around until they looked good.
Ta-dah!
In not very long at all I had three Christmas card designs that I really liked.
I already had some blank greetings cards with envelopes in our hoard of craft things. And so I was able to quickly print my cards at home.
They looked great as they were. But we all like a bit of sparkle.
On one of the cards I stuck on two wooden, glittery stars with simple PVA glue.
A touch of magic was added to the other two cards using glitter-glue pens from GinGin’s craft box. I only added a touch to each: on the Christmas tree and on the reindeers’ antlers.
And there you have it! Three beautiful, totally unique Christmas card designs.
They’ve even got the thumbs-up from Jon, who said that we don’t need to buy any Christmas cards this year. We can use my hand-crafted Christmas cards instead!
I absolutely adore the designs in the Christmas Craft Bundle from Design Bundles, and I will most definitely be making more Christmas cards with them this year.
What Next?
If you like this post then you might enjoy these to:
- How To Make Your Kid’s Christmas Extra Special This Year
- I Bought a Slow Cooker and I Love It!
- Simple Tip For Reusing An Everyday Household Item
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Hi, I’m Jennie and I’m the blogger and content creator behind the award-winning blog GinGin & Roo, a UK parenting and lifestyle blog.
