How to make beautiful hand made cards for christmas

" Hand made " or "Home made" christmas cards are something special to give and to receive during the christmas holidays.

Cards can be made with a theme or depict interests that the sender or the recipient may have. They can be plain , patterned or really intricate. They can be small, large or a patterned shape. In fact there is no absolute, you can make whatever you want and let your imagination run riot. Even if art was not your subject at school, you will find that there are a range of kits and papers with stickers that will enable even the most inartistic "newbie" to produce a great and personal card.

• These cards were made by cutting the shape of a christmas cracker out of a card. Again its not so much artistic as being able to draw and cut straight line.
• Using double sided sticky tape or a light glue stick the edges of the card
• Cover the card with a sheet of coloured christmas paper
• Trim with a small peice of ribbon or cord or even tinsel
• Using an off cut of the paper cut a piece of card and cover it with the paper, trim as required.
• Use a "Happy Christmas" sticker and apply to the card
• Edge with stickers if you have them
• Result, one really unusual card
• Stick the card "Happy Christmas" to the cracker with double sided tape or glue

Decoupage comes in three levels of difficulty

1. Pop out decoupage which is the easiest as the pieces just pop out and you assemble according to the numbers
2. Self cutting decoupage where you cut each peice out and assemble according to the numbers
3. Plain decoupage sheets- the same picture is printed 3 or 4 times and you pick out which pieces you wish to enhance and assemble more layers of.

Layers are assembled by using small foam pads which are stuck on the back of the layer to be added. It is fiddly but if you like doing it, very rewarding.

These cards probably look as if they are well beyond the skills of the beginner. They are not as they are relatively easy to do as long as you can follow a number sequence and can fold in a straight line- not too difficult for most of us.

I recommend that you buy an Iris folding kit and some pre cut strips so that you can concentrate on the folding. Once you are confident you can cut strips of your own paper. The owner of my local craft shop says that you can do it with ribbon, but advises that it needs ironing first!