Holiday Cards

For the past few years I have made the holiday cards I send out to friends and family. I don't make them all the same because I get bored using the same materials and layout over and over. So I'll make about five that are the same and move on to different materials or a different style. This year each card is unique, and is made almost completely from recycled materials or things I already had. I have not spent one penny for new materials this year, reducing my environmental "footprint" just a tiny bit! The other nice thing about these cards is how easy they are to create as a family, getting everyone involved. Every year friends and family give me the cards they have received in the past to use for projects. When I was teaching there were all sorts of origami and other crafty things I would use them for, but in the last couple of years they have been piling up! Last January I decided to sort through everything I had and there was almost an entire copy-paper box full!I knew I could use the great art work on the card fronts as I had with different crafts for many years, so I started cutting the images out to have them ready for any project, as if they were store-bought embellishments. I used my tiny precision Cutter Bee scissors on the more intricate images, but many are square, or lend themselves to being easily cut with the circle cutter.The recycle bag next to me started to fill up very quickly as I cut out the primary picture on each card. I noticed on many that besides the snowman, penguin, or angels there were cute borders and backgrounds that probably could be used in some way. Being my mother's daughter, I picked right through that recycle bag and pulled out all the large card fronts that were pretty colors, continued cutting out my large images, and thought about how to use the rest of the card. I was going to be like the Native Americans and use all the parts of the buffalo, or in this case, the card!Here's where I got really re-purpose/recycle-ish! I used the backs of the cards that were solid colors to print out journaling boxes for my scrap booking and phrases for card making! Then, while going through the cards I had received, I came across one that had a patchwork quilt background. That gave me the idea to create a quilt or mosaic with the pieces of card that were printed with festive backgrounds and borders, but not necessarily a large, full image that could stand on its own.Cutting up the little squares is an easy task that even the youngest family member can do successfully, as long as she is old enough to use scissors. I used my guillotine paper cutter to cut strips and then just chopped them into somewhat square shapes. An adult could cut the strips and the child could use scissors to chop them into the squares. The larger the squares, the faster it is to make the final card, but you don't want them too large or it won't look like a mosaic. The most difficult part of making these cards was figuring out how to glue down all of the squares without making a mess and without taking a really long time. I tried many things, including special adhesive that comes like a roll of paper, which is expensive and didn't necessarily work great; glue sticks, which worked well but was time consuming; and tiny dots of regular white glue, which was messy and took a long time.If I was to do this project with a team of people, I'd use glue sticks, but for one adult working alone, I recommend using slightly watered-down white glue and just painting it lightly onto the card stock backing as if you were actually tiling a floor! Glue down on a small section, lay some tiles, and repeat. If the card stock gets too wet it will curl as it dries, which can always be fixed with a stack of heavy books or boxes, but it's better to try to use just a light wash of the adhesive.Once the little squares were dry, I filled in any spaces with metallic gold or silver pen, like a grout. Then I used a lightly watered down Mod Podge mixture to seal everything down, just like with a tile floor. I tried both the matte and the glossy finish and both looked good, although I preferred the glossy on the cards that had lots of metallic pieces.These again need drying time, and then it's on to the final step, attaching the main decorative images. I like for mine to have a mat behind them and have some dimension, either by using embellishments such as brads, buttons, and ribbon, or by using 3-D adhesives that make things pop out a little.
On some cards I put a sentiment or saying on the front, sometimes inside, and sometimes no saying at all. I came up with this particular saying for the inside of all the Santa cards, and printed them out in Microsoft Word.Unlike many of the fabulous artists whose blogs I visit, I am no Joe-Pro crafter, but my family and friends really seem to appreciate and enjoy the holiday cards to which I devote so much time. I'm sure yours would too! It's easy to get your hands on the cards, just put out a call in your church bulletin, your child's school, or to your family and friends in general. Some people may not want to send you the entire card because of the messages inside, but you only want the fronts, so they can remove the backs if they'd like. If you make something like this, or re-purpose old greeting cards in some other way, tell us about it!