A Homemade Christmas- Part 2.

Some of the finished product, ready to get mailed!

We made our own cards this year and strictly used stuff we had around the house.  We send out between 50-60 cards every year and usually that ends up being a hefty purchase in itself, when considering everything that goes into postage and 'nice' cards.  I had a cool idea in my head for a card and we got about 80% there . . . but with kiddos and a busy life sometimes 80% is AWESOME!

We used:

-White Card stock
-Greeting Card Envelopes
-Silver paint and calligraphy pens
-Star stamps and various shades of stamp ink I had
-Non-toxic kid safe poster paint in dark blue, shimmery light blue, shimmery medium purple, and white
-'Cool' Scissors (what my daughter calls them) with a pretty curvy edge

Step 1.

-Cut all cards with 'cool' scissors.  Make sure they are all roughly 3x5-ish.
-Write holiday message with paint and calligraphy pens.
-Use star stamps across the top and bottom of the 'holiday message' side.

Half of the cut out cards on top of snow day workbooks we do with Eva.

Step 2.

-Do first layer of hand prints in dark blue.
-As that dries, address and stamp all envelopes.

Written, stamped, addressed.

-Steps 3-5.

-Do each consecutive layer of hand prints.  Let dry, then do next.  Obviously we started with daddy's and went down to my sons, since his are the smallest.  We each used a different color, for a layered effect.

-Step 6.

-Lightly coat hand print with a quick spritz of aerosol hair spray (Bring on the Aqua Net, or crafty people use spray fixative, I guess.)  I did this because I had noticed, other times when we used the paints we have, that they can tend to flake.  The hairspray seems to prevent that.

-Step 7.

-Stuff envelopes, close them up, mail them off.

DONE!!!

I really liked making our own cards and may continue it as long as the kids are willing. So often, I find cards that only fit what I wanted about 50% of the time.  Maybe less.  Our cards may not have been perfect (after the kiddos did the hand prints- they vaguely resembled blobs) but it was nice to send something that WE MADE TOGETHER for all the people we couldn't celebrate with or send gifts to.

I realized NOW that all the cards have been mailed or given, that we didn't take a picture of the front of the cards with the layered hand prints.  Also, I do really believe in buying local or for charitable causes when it comes to cards for holidays and special occasions.  Remember that a lot of times, proceeds go almost entirely to charity or to support a local business.  Here, at Elegant Mommy, we are totally into that idea!  Next year check places like Sioux Falls Art Moms or search online for cool cards going to cool charities.