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Christmas 2020 - Keeping in touch with friends and family
I love Christmas and I always feel that it’s the little things that make it special, such as gift wrapping and sending unique Christmas cards.
However, Christmas 2020 is going to be a little different for us all and we’ll be unlikely to see as many friends and family over the festive period as usual. Therefore, this year it’s even more important that we keep in touch with friends and family.
Sending physical Christmas Cards has gone out of fashion slightly in recent years but now would be a great time to resurrect that tradition.
Sending a homemade card is so much more personal than sending a shop bought card and it’s a great way to get creative and really show you care.
If you have a computer and printer at home why not try making your own. There are now so many resources at your fingertips with creative websites such as Canva and the ability to download numerous fonts will help you create those special and unique Christmas cards.
And, by making your own cards you’re free to do whatever you want. You can make them as elaborate or simple as you want; and you know they’ll definitely be one of a kind.
The tradition of christmas cards
The tradition of sending Christmas cards can be traced back to 1611 when someone called Michael Maier sent one to James I of England and his son Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Then in 1843 Sir Henry Cole commissioned John Callcott Horsley to illustrate a Christmas card in London with the central picture showing three generations of a family raising a toast to the card’s recipient: on either side were scenes of charity, with food and clothing being given to the poor. 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each.
The tradition of sending Christmas cards continued to be popular throughout the Victorian and Edwardian years although early British Christmas cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead they depicted flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring.
Today you have a choice of hundreds of different commercially produced Christmas cards to choose from. And, although the tradition has declined in recent years it is still estimated that in the UK, around 900 million cards are sent each year.
How to make your own unique christmas cards
It’s so simple to get creative and make your own totally personalised Christmas cards with just a few things. Here are some tips on how to get started.
1. Design the look and feel
When you start thinking about the design of your car jot a few things down to give yourself an outline to work to. Things to think about are colours, images, will you be adding decoration to your printed card etc.
2. Choose your paper /card
There are so many options to choose from. For Christmas cards I would suggest making them A5 size and you can buy pre-creased cards from lots of shops, one of my favourite suppliers is The Paper Box .
Where possible choose to use recycled paper as that is the more Eco friendly / sustainable option.
I love using recycled Kraft paper.
3. Choose which application to use to design your cards with
To get started with your Christmas card design you’ll need to decide if you are going to create it using something like Microsoft Word or a more an app that also gives you access to more design tools.
Some great design apps to choose from are:
- Canva
- Pickmonkey
- Get Funky
4. Creating Your christmas cards
I like using Canva for most of my designs as it has a good library of images. It also has a wide range of fonts to choose from. However, you can now get access to even more fonts to really personalise your designs. For my Christmas card designs I’ve used some brilliant Freebie Fonts .
There’s a huge range of fonts to choose from and they are very easy to download, if you use Canva you can also upload them to use on your designs.
My current favourites are:
- Candish – Cany Cane and
- Underwood Typewriter
5. Adding the Finishing touches to your christmas cards
Once you’re happy with the design and you’ve printed out your cards you can either leave them as is or add some decoration.
My christmas card designs
I’ve gone for two different designs. My first design is a simple Christmas Tree with a Candy Cane font to give it an extra Christmassy look
And, for my second design I’ve gone for a simple word repeat design using a Typewriter font and added a wreath design using rosemary leaves on the printed card.
It’s surprisingly simple to make your own Christmas cards and add your own personal touches to them to make them extra special.
If you are looking for more Christmas craft inspiration take a look at my Blog post Plastic Free Homemade Christmas Decorations
What a talent you have for card making. I absolutely love the one with the real wreath on it. I am not normally a card sender but I think this year I am going to make an effort. I have some handmade cards that I did a few years ago so I am going to dig them out, You’ve inspired me x
Ah this is a cute little idea, love them and super easy to achieve too