Today I want to share some easy ways to make Christmas cards using only card stock for your card base and 1 12x12 pad of patterned paper. Yup, that's right - 1 12x12 pad of patterned paper. No extra supplies like stamps, coloring supplies, dies, etc.
I found this gorgeous pad of paper from Me and My Big Ideas for $6 on clearance at Hobby Lobby (and I have seen it at several Tuesday Morning stores as well).
This pad of paper has two sheets with a ton of Christmas sentiments, as well as several sheets with a single large Christmas sentiment that you can cut out and use for a huge impact.
Card #1: Merry & Bright
For the first card, I selected a sentiment from one of the sheets and freehand cut around the script font. I kept a small border around the sentiment because I liked the contrast between the white font and black background, but also to make the cutting easier on myself. Because I was also using a dark background, I used a small piece (about 1.5 inches tall) of another patterned paper so that the sentiment would stand out more. Plus, by backing the sentiment on paper that has foil on it, you get the additional sparkle and pop to the card without having to add anything else. I did decide to add a few enamel dots to this card because I have a serious problem and can't seem to leave them off of anything, LOL, but they are not necessary at all. This type of card stands well on it own with no additional embellishment.
Card #2: Merry Christmas and Happy new Year
This second card is even more simple than the first. There is NO fussy cutting! I simply took one of the sheets of paper that had a large sentiment that I new would be great for non-traditional sized card and trimmed the image down so that there was a minimal border around the sentiment. Once the sentiment was cut down, I measured the length and width and then trimmed some more of the red chevron foil paper down so that there was 1/4 inch displayed on each side of the sentiment panel. I then measured the foil paper and then cut down a piece of card stock so that there would be a 1/4 inch border of the card stock showing when the card stock was folded in half.
First, if you want to be able to get as many cards as you can out of a single pad of paper, you want to select an option that already has sentiments in the collection.
When cutting out sentiments, keep a small border around the sentiment. By leaving the border around the sentiment, you need to be as detailed with the cutting and I think that it looks prettier and more purposeful as well.
Don't be afraid of making cards with different dimensions. Even if you can't find an envelope that exactly matches the size, there are a lot of options for different dimensions at places like Paper Source - or you can just add the card to a package without having to worry about an envelope at all.
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