Painted Christmas Lights Card
What you need:
Acrylic or watercolor paint in various colors
Paper for you card - I used tan cardstock for the card, and white for the front of the card
Black ballpoint pen
Glue or tape
First, cut your cardstock to make the size card that you want. Next, measure the size of white paper that you want for the front of the card. I made mine a little small than the card so that there would be a border around the edges. Attach the white paper to the front of the card using glue or tape. I have clear double-sided tape on a small roller that I use for scrapbooking, which I used to attach the paper.
Next, pull out your paints. I have both acrylic and water color paint, but I chose to use the acrylic this time. To make the lights, you can use one of two methods: (1) paint the shapes using a paint brush, or (2) use your fingers to make fingerprint lights. I used both methods, first using my index finger to make the shapes, then using my paintbrush to refine the edges and make the top of the light come to more of a pointed edge than too round. I used green, red, yellow, orange and blue.
Once the paint is dry, use your ballpoint pen to make the light strand. I made a spiral at the base of the light, then connected the lights using a wavy line.
To finish the card, I wrote "Happy Holidays" on the top right corner, and "2013" on the bottom right.
Wycinanki Christmas Cards
What you need:
Various colors of cardstock
Sharp paper-cutting scissors
Modge podge
Wycinanki are traditional Polish folk art, and very popular around Christmas time. There are various designs we can make. I chose to make some Christmas trees, as well as a Nativity scene. For more information on this paper-cutting art, see my post where I made my first wycinanki.
As with all of the cards, first chose the color and size cardstock for your actual card. I used blue, and then made a smaller rectangle out of white for the front of the card. To make the Christmas tree, cut a square with the dimensions that fit the height of the tree and width of the largest branches. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. Using a white colored pencil, draw the outline of half of your tree along the fold, so that you will have a symmetric tree after you've cut it out and unfolded the paper.
After you've cut the outline of the tree, keep it folded and cut small squares or triangles around the outline of the branches to give them a feathered appearance.
Once you've finished your tree, use the modge podge or an adhesive of your choosing to attach the tree to the card, as I have done here.
The next part of your wycinanki tree is to make the ornaments. You can made any shape or design, such as hearts, stars, flowers, etc. The key here is to make everything symmetric. I made flowers and hearts using variations of the same colored paper (blue, turquoise, light pink, dark pink, purple, green, red, and yellow), as well as candles to go on each tree branch. Here is an example of a flower that I made. As you can see, the flowers are layered which is characteristic of wycinanki - it is all about layering.
Here you can see me building my tree, using modge podge to attach my ornaments.
And here is my final product!
Now, if you'd rather not use the layered approach, you can use a different method which involves using only one color of paper. For this technique, chose a color (red, black or green are popular) and size for your end design. You are going to fold the paper in half, and using a pencil or pen, draw half of your design along the fold. Below I will show you how I made a Christmas tree and a Nativity scene.
First, here is the Christmas tree. I folded my red paper in half after I measured the size that I wanted it to be on the front of the card. Next, draw half of the design in white pencil along the fold. The design I drew not only includes the tree, but also the outline of the star on top, some flowers and stars on the tree limbs, and presents beneath the tree.
After you've perfected your design, you can cut it out, unfold it and then paste it onto the white background on your card.
Here is the other design, which is a Nativity scene. Following the same process as the tree we just made, draw half of the outline for your nativity scene. My card is small, so I was only able to include the manger, Mary and Joseph praying by the side of the manger, as well as an angel on the side of the stable. Again, cut it out, unfold and paste onto the white background on your card.
Christmas Ornaments Card
What you need:
Cardstock for the card. You will need at least 2 colors, as you will see below.
3 patterns of fabric or scrapbook paper
Fine-tipped Sharpie, gold or silver gel pen
As for the other cards, first chose the color and size of cardstock that you want for your card. Next, cut out a rectangle or square to go on the front of the card as above. I cut two different pieces - one green and one white. On the white square, I drew my three ornaments in pencil using three different shapes. Next, you need to cut out the shapes in the card. To do this, poke a point of the scissors into the center of the shape, then begin cutting around the inside of the shape that you have outlined. This is what it looks like once you've cut out the shapes.
Next, take your fabric or scrapbook paper, and cut either a square or rectangle a little larger than the shape of the ornament so that when you lay the fabric/paper on the back side of the paper you can turn the paper over to see the shape that you cut out for each ornament to be covered by the fabric. Attach the fabric or paper to the back using modge podge. Be sure that the "right side" of the fabric or paper is facing down when you paste it to the back, or else the wrong side will be showing when you flip the paper over. Here is what it looks like:
I used double sided tape to apply the paper with the ornaments onto the piece of green paper that I cut out, and then tacked the whole thing to the brown cardstock that I cut out for the card. Finally, I used a brown fine-tipped sharpie to outline the ornaments and draw a line from the top of the card to the top of each ornament to make it look like it was hanging. I then used a gold gel pen to accent each of the lines that I drew with the brown pen. And here is the card:
Day 1 of DIY Christmas Cards complete! Come by tomorrow for some more card ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment