Add Personal Touch with a Photo Christmas Card

If you want to make a really big impact this Christmas, rather than running down to the market and buying stock Christmas cards, try making a family photo Christmas card. Even better, the photo Christmas card is not likely to make it to the rubbish bin but more likely to be kept and either framed or placed into a photo album. In this manner, you are doing your part to help save the trees. The problem with traditional greeting cards is that many people find them to be impersonal and insincere. A photo Christmas card is a personal greeting lets the receiver know that you feel they are a part of your family too.

With widespread digital photography programs available to download (some free and some for a price) or purchase from local retailers it is easier than ever to design, touch up, and print your very own family photo Christmas cards. Digital cameras allow you to take and view photos immediately and retakes only require a few more seconds of your time for those rare photos where someone’s eyes or closed or someone is giving sister rabbit ears. You don’t even need fancy printing and photo editing software to make your own photo Christmas cards, you can upload the photo to one of many online photo services and they can make, edit, and even print the cards for you (for a small fee of course, which is really a small price to pay if you lack the skills to do it for yourself).

There is absolutely no right or wrong way to make a photo Christmas card. In today’s world it is perfectly okay to be creative or casual with your card making. Some of the best cards I’ve seen are with families in jeans and tee shirts with bare feet all lying on the floor wearing Santa hats. Be silly, be creative, have fun, and let your personality show through. It doesn’t even have to be a Christmas type of setting. You can have a family photo at the beach and say something like “I bet you wish you were here instead of eating fruitcake” Anything to bring a smile to the faces of those that love you most.

The most important thing to remember is that you don’t make the process more complicated than it has to be. Keep it as simple as possible. You do not want to have a negative experience by trying to do too much or learn too much too quickly. If you do that, you run the risk of giving up and quitting all together. As I’ve mentioned before, if the process of making and printing a card seems overly complicated to you, there are many services, both online and off that will be more than happy to create and print wonderful photo Christmas cards from your family photograph.

Christmas Greetings – Your Children Will Have Fun Designing Christmas Cards

Do you want to greet your family and friends with your own Christmas cards? With a bit of time and patience, you can make your cards unique, original, compelling and fun! Get together with your children at home and create your own Christmas cards this year. Here are a few suggestions you can try:

Choose the color you want to work with and purchase a sheet of your desired material (cardboard is steady and easy to work with). Cut the card into 10cm by 15cm to form a rectangular shape. We will call it a “letter size”. Fold the sheet in half so the card will have many sides. Let your children make their favorite Christmas drawing (Father Christmas, a snow scene, Rudolph, a Christmas tree, etc) on the main side of the card. Complement the design with lots of glitter of all different colors.

Another idea is to ask your children to make a collage. Purchase three different colored cards. Take one of them and cut a letter sized sheet. Take the second card and cut the sheet a bit smaller this time. Glue it over the first card. Take the third card, cut it smaller than the second, draw something related to Christmas on it (children love to draw pine trees!). Glue the third card onto the second card. Make a few of these, write your Christmas greetings on the back, and post them over to the rest of the family. They will be thrilled!

An option is to cut the card into different shapes. Ribbons are very popular with children. Use different color cards so you end up with lots of lovely shapes and variety to work with. Glue the shapes into the letter sized cards. Write your very special Christmas greetings and… ready to go!

I personally like to use photographs for my Christmas greetings. They are personal, unique and they carry a thoughtful message. Customize your cards by including the photos. You can use funny pictures of the family, or more serious ones, photos of your pet, childhood photos, caricatures that you can make out of the pictures… even a photo of where you live if the rest of your family has not been able to visit yet… There are literally hundreds of choices.

And, if you really want to add a touch to your card, why not include things inside like a lottery ticket, store vouchers, Christmas show tickets, a special poem… Christmas greetings do not have to be just about buying and sending cards. Do something different this year, have fun with your children and add a personal touch!

Do you ever wonder what the top Christmas presents are? Marcia Roberts will tell you in her article as well as everything you need to know about Christmas wishes.

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Make Your Own Christmas Cards

Are you tired of sending the same old Christmas cards depicting boring baubles and dreary bells year in and year out? Have you ever thought that you could design better Christmas cards yourself? Why not have a go this year?

The best time to begin collecting material for making Christmas cards is during the previous year's yuletide season. Collect as many seasonal clippings, ribbons, bows and small decorations as possible from magazines, wrapping paper, gift tags, Christmas cards, advent calendars…the list is endless – you won't have to look far for inspiration during the Christmas period.

Once you have amassed all of your material, store it in a special craft chest. You may wish to divide your material into different themes and put it into individual drawers in your craft chest.

You can then decide when to begin making cards for next Christmas. This will depend on how much time you have throughout the year and how many cards you wish to make – do you want to make a card for everyone on your Christmas card list or just a few for close friends and family?

Before starting to make the cards, you will need to buy either some card for cutting, folding and making your own card blanks or some ready-made card blanks with envelopes – this is the quickest and easiest way. Look in the crafts-paper crafts-card making section of eBay for good value packs of card blanks and matching envelopes or try your local craft store.

White or cream is a good background color as it enables you to use a variety of colors on top but you don't have to restrict yourself to this color, you can be as creative as you like. Red and green also make good background colors for Christmas cards.

You may also wish to buy peel-offs, which are stickers with such greetings as 'Happy Christmas,' 'Season's Greetings,' etc. They are useful for giving your cards the finishing touch but are not essential, as you could write a greeting using a silver gel pen, for example, or not include a greeting on the front of the card at all.

Sticky pads are another useful addition to your Christmas card craft making kit. These small foam pads with adhesive on both sides give certain images a slightly raised effect, allowing them to stand out from card slightly. They are excellent for giving more prominence to centerpieces.

You could also buy other materials like handmade or mulberry paper but these are not necessary if you have amassed a lot of your own Christmas material.

Alternatively, if you do not have any materials for making the cards, you could buy a Christmas card making kit. This will include several card blanks as well as many bits and pieces that you can use to design and make cards. It may even have suggested designs and instructions, which are great if you lack a little inspiration.

As far as tools are concerned, the only essential tools are a pair of scissors, a ruler and some glue. A glue pen is very useful as it allows you to apply glue very finely to small decorations.

Now the fun begins…just sit down and let you imagination run wild. Try out different designs on the cards without sticking them down. If one design doesn't work, discard it and begin again but don't be too judgmental – the idea is to have fun. Some designs will be better than others but you won't develop your own style if you don't give your creativity full rein.

As a finishing touch, you could add a little sticker on the back saying 'handmade by…' These stickers are available to buy or you could print them yourself from your computer. If people like your cards, you could have orders coming in for next year's cards and before you know it, you will have set up your own card making business. You could even sell your surplus cards to friends, at local groups and fairs or even on the Internet. eBay is a good place to start selling hand-crafted items online.

If you do begin selling your cards, bear in mind that you can only sell your original designs. If you have copied someone else's design either from a book, magazine, website or another source, you cannot sell it as it would be a violation of copyright, unless it is explicitly stated that it is a copyright-free design.

So, sit down, relax and enjoy a creative pursuit in the run-up to Christmas. The rewards could be greater than you expect.

Copyright © 2006, Ian White Access 2000 Pty Ltd