Easy DIY Christmas cards

Buying card

You can buy prefolded cards, or fold your own. Simply bend the card in half, line up the corners, then pinch at the two edges of the fold first. Lay the loosely folded card on a surface, line up the corners again, and smooth the rest of the fold using your finger, or a smooth piece of plastic, like the flat side of a ruler or pen. You can also make your cards postcard-style and leave them unfolded.

Sticking onto card

When sticking paper or card onto other paper or card, we recommend using a glue stick, as it's unlikely to make the paper wrinkle. If you’re sticking other materials onto card, such as pasta or dried orange slices, PVA glue or glue dots hold better.

Painting on card

Acrylic paint or paint pens are perfect for stamping or painting things like pasta – they’re vivid, can be layered and dry quickly.

How to write on Christmas cards

Once you’ve finished your creation, it’s understandable to be hesitant about writing on the front incase it goes wrong. You don’t have to write directly on the card though – write or print the wording on a separate piece of paper, then cut it out (you can mount it onto a slightly larger piece of card to give it a neat finish), then stick it on.

If you do want to letter directly on to the card, draw pencil guidelines first, then go over in ink.

Easy Christmas card ideas for kids

Pasta wreath

Paint pasta shapes (bows or macaroni work well) using green acrylic or poster paint, then allow to dry.
Arrange the pasta in a ring shape on the card, adjusting the position until you’re happy.
Glue the pasta pieces onto the card. To help the pasta bond to the paper, place a book or plate on top of the shapes to press them down as the glue dries, being careful not to disturb the pieces.
Glue a ribbon bow to the wreath, or stick on small pom poms as baubles.

Cupcake snowflakes

To make this easy take on paper snowflakes, flatten cupcake cases into circles, then fold into quarters.
Fold the quarters into thirds to make thin triangles.
Snip little triangular notches into all the edges of the triangle, discarding the cuttings.
Unfurl the paper cases to reveal snowflakes.
Paint the snowflakes with acrylic or poster paint, sprinkling with glitter whilst the paint is wet, if you like. Leave to dry.
Arrange the snowflakes on the card and stick down.

Potato print robin

Cut a medium potato in half lengthways.
Dip the cut side of one of the halves into brown acrylic or poster paint and stamp onto card at a slight diagonal to make the body.
Use fingers or a small triangle of potato to print the tail. Allow to dry (it’s ok if the paint is very slightly wet when you next stamp, as it will create a blended effect).
Cut the remaining half of the potato in half again to make a quarter-size piece, dip in white paint and stamp onto the lower edge of the print to make the tummy, then allow to dry fully.
Cut a smaller potato in half widthways, then dip the cut edge into red paint. Stamp over the white at one end to make the face. Allow to dry.
Draw eyes and legs on the robin with a black paint pen or marker pen, and a beak with a gold pen. If you don’t have a gold pen, you can use yellow paint, or a small piece of yellow card.

Easy homemade Christmas cards for grown-ups

Dried orange baubles

Stick slices of dried oranges onto card. Allow to dry.
Use a pen (we used a metallic paint paint pen) to draw the top of the baubles and strings, drawing all the way to the top edge of the card.

Doily angel

Cut one large triangle from a doily to make the body and two small triangular shapes for the wings.
Cut a small circle from the doily for the head.
Glue the wings to the back of the body, then stick the head onto the front of the body.
Glue the angel to the card – you can just put a small dot in the centre of the angel to allow the edges to curl up and give it more dimension, or stick the whole shape flat to the card.

Rosemary Christmas tree

Stick a small piece of cinnamon stick to the bottom third of the card to make the tree trunk.
Stick rosemary sprigs to the card in the shape of a tree using PVA glue, overlapping the fronds slightly – we recommend using different lengths to get the right shape. Place a book or plate carefully over the top to weigh the stalks down as they dry.
Stick a star anise at the top of the tree, then weigh down again until dry.

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