How To: Minimalist Neon Christmas Cards & Tags

Today I'm sharing an easy "how to" for making simple Christmas cards and tags from neon felt.

  

This is a super simple design but the bright colour + the texture of the felt = a great combo. Of course, you could use any colour of felt for this project but the neon colours work so well!

 

I used acrylic felt for this project, the same type sold at Fuzzy Fish (as "lime" and "punk pink"). Cloud Craft also sell neon pink felt. (Full disclosure, these shops are currently sponsors of my blog but these are in no way sponsored links... I just love neon felt!). If you've spotted other places selling neon felt, please share a link in the comments :)

 

You will need:

Blank card & tags - I used these recycled cards from Paperchase
Felt
Fabric scissors
The templates at the bottom of this post
Glue or double sided sticky tape (and scissors for cutting the tape)
A black marker or other pen
Optional: a pencil, ruler and eraser

To make the cards:

1. Use the large template provided to cut out your Christmas tree shapes, one for each card you want to send.

2. Stick one tree to each card. You can use craft glue or pieces of double-sided tape. Peeling off the tape can be a bit fiddly but it's mess-free and sticks felt to card really well with no lumps or bumps. Make sure to leave space at the bottom of the card to write your greeting, if you want to add one.

3. Use a marker or other pen to write a simple greeting under the tree. It's a good idea to write the text in pencil first to make sure you get it nicely centred. You can also use a ruler to give yourself a straight line to write across. Wait until the ink is totally dry and then erase the pencil lines.

I tried using a silver marker for the card with the green tree but it didn't work at all as the silver didn't show up well on the brown card. Oops! However, silver lettering would look great if you were using black cards.

For a super minimalist look, leave the cards text free!

To make the tags:

1. Use the small template provided to cut out your Christmas tree shapes. If needed, resize the template to fit your tags. I used ready-made blank tags but you could make some yourself from blank card, a hole punch and a piece of string/twine/yarn/etc.

2. Stick a Christmas tree to each tag. You don't need much to attach the trees - I just used one piece of double-sided tape. 

And that's it! Quick and easy tags ready for dressing up your parcels. These tags would look great paired with brown paper and silver ribbons... or with other neon gift-wrapping supplies. Neon London sell a great selection of neon ribbons and wrap. 

Click here to view the template sheet in a new window or tab. Make sure you're viewing it full size, then print at 100%.

This tutorial is for personal use only. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

This Week I Have Been...

... tidying up my stash of sewing thread.

 

... getting up early. Getting out of bed when it's cold and dark is rarely fun, but you do sometimes get to enjoy sunrises like this!

 

... clearing out some felt scraps from finished projects.

... and making a start on writing my Christmas cards, plus wrapping some gifts to send to faraway friends. I didn't send a single Christmas card last year as I was so busy working on my book, so I am trying to be more organised this year!

(Cards etc by Telegramme, Dee Beale & Kate Slater).

Festive Birds

I've finally made a start on writing my Christmas cards and wrapping some gifts and while gathering my supplies together I noticed a clear birdie theme appearing. I guess this shouldn't be too surprising as I do love birds!

The cards I'm sending this year include these Birds & Berries cards from Dee Beale...

... and Holly Birds cards from Kate Slater:

I'm wrapping gifts with some of Kate Slater's lovely Robin gift wrap...

... and some of the lush Charley Harper bird gift wrap I bought from Fred Aldous last year which isn't specifically Christmas-y but who cares! The more birdie goodness the merrier, I reckon.

(All images borrowed from the respective stores I've linked to).

P.S. If you're looking for some nice tags for your Christmas gifts, do check out the printable gift tag round-up I posted a couple of months ago - lots of lovely things, including several birds (of course).

DIY Christmas Cards & Advent Garland

Today I'm sharing an idea for making some easy Christmas cards using some of my free felt ornament patterns.

You can make sparkly Christmas cards...

... or an advent garland made from 24 mini envelopes:

For both projects, you'll need the templates from the following felt ornament tutorials:

Candy Cane Ornaments
Snowmen Ornaments
& Christmas Tree Ornaments

To make the Christmas cards...

1) Cut out all the templates you want to use, turn them over and trace the shapes onto the appropriate colours of paper or card with a pencil. Cut out the coloured shapes and turn them over - any pencil marks will now be hidden at the back. I used plain paper/card for most of the pieces but used some shiny gold wrapping paper for the stars on the Christmas trees.

2) Arrange the pieces and take a note of which pieces are underneath or overlapped by the others and will need to be glued on first. Use a glue stick to glue each piece in position on a blank card, leaving space at the bottom of the card for a message if you want one.

3) Use a black pen to draw eyes and buttons on your snowmen and to write your choice of message along the bottom of the card (it's a good idea to write this in pencil first, or you may end up with an off-centre message like I did! Oops).

4) You could leave the cards as they are if you want (I think the snowman and candy cane cards look rather nice left un-decorated) but it's good to have some sparkle at Christmas, right? So now's the time to add it. You can decorate the shapes with glitter glue, or brush on PVA glue and sprinkle it with glitter in the colour you want...

You could cover the whole tree shape with green glitter, or add glitter to dots or lines of PVA glue / draw on lines or dots with glitter glue, or use PVA glue to stick on some sparkly sequins.

If you're using two colours of glitter (e.g. for the candy cane) make sure one section is totally dry before glueing-and-glittering the next.

Glitter is a bit tricky to photograph (especially the white stuff!) but trust me, the finished cards are SUPER sparkly :)

For extra Christmas loveliness, why not make a felt ornament to match the card and slip it inside when you send it?

To make the advent garland... follow steps 1 & 2 as above but stick your shapes onto mini envelopes.

Then use a black pen to draw on the eyes and buttons for the snowmen, and to number each envelope. You will need 24 envelopes to make up your advent garland but you don't have to make all the envelopes as detailed as these - you could add some with simple stars and hearts as well.

Then fill the envelopes with happy messages / wrapped sweets / etc and use mini pegs and a length of ribbon or twine to hang up the garland.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many cards / garlands as you like to give to friends and family but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

DIY Glitter Snowflake Christmas Cards

I was sorting through a box last month and found some small paper snowflakes I'd made one past Christmas and I thought it was a shame to just throw them away, so I thought I'd use them for a couple of simple festive crafty projects instead: some Christmas cards and some bunting. I'll share the pics & instructions for making the bunting at the weekend, but first up: the cards.

 

These cards are lots of fun to make and they look really dramatic when finished. It's quite hard to photograph things that are covered in glitter but trust me, these are really sparkly!

 

They'd be a great project to work on one chilly winter weekend with friends or with your kids, folding and cutting paper snowflakes together while watching movies and then having a fun session with lots of glitter.

To make them you will need:  

- black sheets of card, cut to size and folded (or ready made card blanks)

- white paper 

- a compass or something circular, and a pencil

- scissors

- a glue stick

- PVA or other craft glue 

- white or silver glitter 

(or glitter glue)

- a silver gel pen or a white pencil

First, cut out some small circles from white paper. The size of the circles you need will vary depending on how large your finished cards will be, but for my A6 cards I used snowflakes that were approx 9cms (3 1/2 inches) in diameter. You could use a compass to draw your circles if you have one, or find a jar or vase or small dish that's about the right size and draw around it. If you want to make lots of snowflakes, you might find it easier to make a circular template from cardboard first. 

To make the snowflakes, fold each circle in half three times and snip out shapes from the edges so a pattern is formed when the paper is unfolded again. Remember that the more detailed you make your snowflakes the more fiddly it'll be to glue them in place and decorate them.  

Use a gluestick to stick one snowflake onto each card, making sure any pencil marks at the edges (from drawing the circle) are on the side you cover in glue! Place the snowflake face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully cover it with glue. Then slowly peel it away from the paper (any excess glue will be left on the scrap paper), turn it over and lightly position it on the card leaving room underneath to write a message if you want to. Then smooth the snowflake down so it's stuck firmly in place.

I rather like how the plain white snowflakes look on the black card, so if you're not a glitter fan you could leave your cards like this. (Plain white snowflakes would look fab on square black cards!)

 

 

To add sparkle to the snowflakes, paint a layer of PVA or other craft glue onto the white snowflake shape, and sprinkle it with glitter. When you've removed the excess glitter you should be left with a very sparkly snowflake! Alternatively, you could use a glitter glue pen - the effect is more subtle than using proper glitter but it's also a lot less messy!

 I used white glitter for the middle snowflake, and silver glitter glue for the other two.

Finally, when the cards are completely dry, use a sharp white pencil or a silver gel pen to write "Happy Christmas" / "Happy Holidays" / "Season's Greetings" / etc under the snowflakes. You can then use the same pen or pencil to write your message inside the card. 

For more snowflake projects, try making felt snowflake coasters or ornaments, making a snowflake curtain, or decorating your gifts with paper snowflakes.  

You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Giveaway: Winter Robins & Vintage Haberdashery Cards

When I was ordering my MOO business cards, my order total didn't quite come to the full amount of the voucher they'd given me so I put the rest towards my first order of greetings cards. So I thought it was only fair to do a giveaway for some of the finished cards :)

I'm giving away a set of 4 cards to two lucky winners. You can choose from:

4 Winter Robins cards...

 

... 4 Vintage Haberdashery Notecards (featuring vintage scissors and threads from my grandmother's sewing box)...

... or if you prefer you could have a mixed set of 2 x Winter Robins, 1 x Scissors and 1 x Threads. All the cards are blank inside and come with white envelopes.

Just leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win - let me know which set of cards you'd like! I'm happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter. Leave your comment before 10pm on Thursday 25th October, and I'll pick the winners at random on Friday 26th October.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you. If I'm unable to contact either of the winners within two weeks, I will pick someone else.

Update: Apparently some people are having problem leaving comments on my blog at the moment. If you're unable to leave a comment here on my blog, you can enter via my shop's contact form instead. Please make sure you say which giveaway you're entering!

This giveaway is now closed. 

Something New: Cards!

Do you remember back in the summer I posted a quick snap of something new I was working on?

Well, it turned into a design for the first ever batch of  "Lupin Handmade" Christmas cards...

 

What do you think?

I'm really pleased with how the design turned out (I can't wait to send some of these to my friends this Christmas!) and the "taking a photo of my work and getting it printed on cards" process went okay for a first try.

When I got the cards back from the printers I unfortunately spotted a small bit of fluff that was sitting on the design when I photographed it (oops!). It's pretty small but still, I'd never want to sell anything at full price that wasn't 100% perfect so I'm listing this first batch of cards in my shops at bargain prices.

Single cards are available over in my Big Cartel shop for £1.50 each, and sets of 4 cards are available from my Big Cartel shop and my Etsy shop for £4.50. 

While I was ordering the 'Winter Robins' cards, I thought it would be a good opportunity to finally get round to something that's been on my "to do at some point" list for simply ages - get some cards printed with some snaps of some of the gorgeous haberdashery bits and bobs from my grandmother's sewing box (inspired by this photo).

One card features some gorgeous vintage spools of thread...

 

... and the other features an assortment of scissors & shears:

As with the Christmas cards, the first batch of these unfortunately aren't 100% perfect. In this case, the images printed out a bit darker than I'd expected (the background is more grey than white). I'll be tinkering with the images and getting them reprinted, but in the meantime these prototypes can be found in my shops at the same bargain prices as the Christmas cards.

Single scissors and threads cards can be found in my Big Cartel shop, and mixed sets of 4 cards (2 scissors, 2 threads) can be found in my Big Cartel shop and my Etsy shop.

How To: Angel Christmas Card

UPDATE: this tutorial is now part of my printable PDF angels pattern, available from my shop.

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots of free projects.