Homemade christmas cards

Anna recently sent me a link to an article on the Guardian website entitled “DIY Christmas cards“. I like the idea of making stuff, and despise the commercial horror-show that christmas has descended into, but suffer from a distinct lack of creativity. Which means making cards is hard.

Nevertheless, Anna was keen to try and during a flying visit to Southampton we dove into paperchase, after wading past the throngs of people walking slower than slow people in slow land. With arthritis. And a broken leg. I hate going to Southampton.

Of course, by the time we actually got as far as making any cards I had only vague memories of the article. And, predictably, it was me that needed to make cards first. Thus, I became the self-crafted card guinea pig.

The only thing I could remember was that the article said to use simple shapes, as complex designs were the path to oblivion. We’d only selected a single wrapping paper for our card-creation, and so it was going to be somewhat hard to achieve delineation between parts of the design. I figured that by leaving gaps in between shapes I could achieve what I wanted.

So what to draw? My first thought was to draw a robin. Attempts were not successful. I drew the shapes onto paper first, to avoid wasting the wrapping paper. I’m going with the “robin too complicated” excuse for my failure to draw.

For my next effort, I went with a snowman. I tried to make a curved-top rectangle for a body, circular head and top hat. In retrospect, I think it needed either a scarf, or a 3-blob body approach. Either way, things weren’t looking good; my initial fears seemed to be becoming realised.

The next card I made was a christmas tree. Using the ol’ fold-the-paper-in-half-and-only-cut-one-half-of-the-shape trick, I cut the body of the tree with no trunk or pot. The tree was a standard school-level tree with ever-extending triangles and about 3 tiers. A simple trapezium for the bucket, with a few mm gap, and things were starting to look up. At worst, I now had 1 design that was passable.

Feeling a bit more confident, I stepped up my act and went for a christmas pudding. Re-reading the Guardian article now, I see that this is a shape specifically advised against. Oh well. I drew and cut out a reasonable-sized circle, but wanted to go for the icing-covered top effect. By cutting a squiggly line across the circle at about 1/3 height and spacing the 2 halves out on the card, I had what vaguely resembled a pudding. And as far as I am concerned, vaguely resembles == win. I topped off the pudding with 2 holly leaves and a couple of balls. Oo-err. I drew 1 holly leaf, and used it as a template for the 2nd… I was getting cocky.

For the next design, I had a brainwave; I could draw a present. I was scrabbling for christmas-sy ideas a bit at this point, and for some reason it seemed like a good idea. Armed with no ruler (I guess I could have got up and looked for one, but meh), I sketched a simple cube, and split all faces with a cross of ribbon. I then cut the pieces not only from the background, but also removed the ribbon sections. Reassembling on the front of the card, leaving space where the ribbon used to be, the design looked pretty good, but the odd line here, or width there didn’t quite line up. If you don’t look too closely, I think it was ok though, and if one took the time to use a ruler I think this one, though straying into too-complex territory, is actually a pretty workable design.

The final card (I thought) was a simple angel. Circle for head, tall trapezium for the body, simple triangles with curved ends for the wings and an oval for a halo. I cut the wings too thick, but ho hum.

Of course, having made the cards for myself, Anna then wanted me to make hers. I was having fun, so didn’t mind, but possibly fell into the trap of complication. My next effort was the most detailed I attempted. I started with a candle, drawing dripping wax at the top. This was fine, but a bit bare, so I added a light-halo and then a candle-holder. It looked good in doodle-form, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to transform it into a suitable likeness in the wrapping paper.

In the end, the only part which didn’t really work was the wax. The drips were too thin, and so when pulled apart there wasn’t enough gap in most places. I made a crown, which I pritt-stuck the wrong way on a card, which killed a card, and then a stocking. Finally a bell, which turned out a very bold and simple design; very quick and easy to draw, cut and stick.

All-in-all a reasonable success. Yes, it’s cheaper to buy a bumper 100-card crap-pack from Wilkinson’s in the January sales. And yes, trying to create a unique design for every card is probably overkill; you could save a lot of time by making 1 or 2 templates and being more production-line like. But I have to say, I’m suitably chuffed.

There’s a few more photos in the album. Let’s hope the recipients like them!