Christmas Cards

I love getting Christmas Cards in the mail. There's just something about opening up your mailbox and seeing those holiday stamps that puts a smile on my face. My favorite cards are the homemade ones, the ones where the children help make them or you can tell Mom's been stamping her little heart out. A few years ago I figured that if I look forward to the homemade Christmas Cards so much, I'd better start making mine, too. And that's exactly what I did.

Now, you must be reminded at this point that I am a thinker. I get ginormous plans and elaborate ideas and I'm hooked. It's only after I've plotted out the perfect card that I realize all the work that has to go into it -- times sixty or so.

Take my first *real* homemade card, for example. We had just been through the long process of IVF and were expecting twins. I wanted to make 2006's card both a pregnancy announcement and a Christmas Greeting. And it's a good thing that I took it on before the kiddies came, because those dang cards were A LOT of work. (But still my favorite to this day!)

As you can see, each snowman (and woman), Foamie hat, and carrot nose were cut out by hand; each brad meticulously placed; each bow and scarf cut out, tied, and glued on; and the eyes, mouths, and babies were hand drawn. (I'm such an artist, I know.) But again, totally worth it.

By the next year, I had learned my lesson. We got Santa hats for everyone to wear and my cute Mom took pictures. Then, I just took a black piece of card stock, cut it unto a glorified triangle, threw the family picture on front with vellum and some ribbon, and the picture of the boys on the inside "pocket." Much easier to do, but still cute, crafty, and homemade!

Funny how time has a way of making us forget, isn't it? Or maybe it was that we had just bought our home and I wanted to do another announcement/Christmas card combined. But last year, I dreamt up The House Christmas Card -- black card stock (again) cut into a glorified triangle (again), tied together with twine and our family picture inside our "home." You would think it would be easy, but cutting the cards to get the right shape was a huge pain. And apparently a lot of people didn't even understand that it was supposed to look like a house, so I pretty much failed on that end. But I knew what it was supposed to be, and I loved our card.

So here we are, November 2009, and I'm getting ready to start my card making craziness. When I told my Mom what I wanted to do, she just laughed at me. A Pop-Up card? Sounds tough, right? Well it's not. And to prove it, I'm going to teach you all how to do it. I made a sample so you'll get the basic idea. Sorry you don't get to see my actual cards until December. I know you're disappointed.

First, pick out your paper. You'll need at least two pieces to layer the pop-up piece with the rest of the card, and card stock works best, since it's more stiff. This time I went with green and white.

Fold your inside piece in half. Then you'll want to cut two straight lines perpendicular to the crease, but on the creased end. Make sense? Next, fold that little tab you just made so that it goes the opposite way of the rest of the piece of card stock. If you do it right, You'll see the square shape pop-up when you open your card.

Next, attach your inside piece of card stock to your outside piece of card stock. I tore the edges on this one (ahem, so that I didn't have to make sure they were straight), but I'm definitely NOT doing that for all of my Christmas Cards! Can you imagine? The next thing I did (#5) was make the little "Merry Christmas!" scrap on front. Finally, just attach your picture to the pop-up tab on the inside of your card (I just used mounting squares) and you're finished! (Actually, I was going to round the corners, but I forgot. Oh well. And you'll have to forgive my throw-back to 2001, my demon eyes, and my bare shoulder. We've already discussed my immodest days of yore. But don't we make a cute couple? (Your line is: "Yes!"))

The last picture I took (#7) was from a different angle so that you can actually see that the picture pops up. The longer the lines you cut (in picture 2) the further out your picture will stand.

Pretty sweet eh?

Well, I'm not as talented as those ladies over at Poppies At Play, or their readers who link up, but I'm linking anyway. So there.