Custom Christmas Cards

How to make your own Custom Cards without breaking the bank. These cards including the prints cost me 11 cents each to make including the prints!

I live in Florida. So when looking for Christmas cards I could only find ones portraying some cold wintry wonderland with ice and snow. Tropical Christmas cards are hard to find, and ones that say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays are even harder. I ordered some cards from an online source but they were two bucks each! Ouch! I hand out almost 100 cards every season so that wasn’t in the budget. So I came up with this idea so I wouldn’t have to trim my Christmas cards list. Hope it comes in handy for you.

You could also use you Family photos, or pictures with Santa here.

A7 cards with envelopes- These are 5x7 cards you can get them at Jo-annes, Michaels craft store, Hobby Lobby, or even Walmart carries them. They were $9.99 @ Joanns and I used a store coupon for 50% off, for 50 cards and envelopes, which is cheaper than using card stock and buying envelopes because the envelopes by themselves was $5.50 for 25! So I paid 10 cents per card set (envelope & card) You can get coupons for Joanns, Micheals and Hobby Lobby by googling them. They’re usually between 40-50% off.

4x6 Photo Prints- I got 50 prints for free at Shutterfly.com by signing up as a new customer. Only pay shipping. OR you can get prints at any drug store, or big box store for between 19-30 cents each.

Razor blade or knife- to cut the cards to fit the photo. You can skip this step if you don’t want the photos to be removable and glue or tape them on the cover instead. Or instead of cutting the cards you could put the corner tabs on the photos then paste them down. I wanted to this with mine but all the stores around me were out of them, and this step it free. Gotta love that price. LOL

Cutting mat & Tape- this is optional But makes things easier.

Computer & Printer (not pictured)- This step is also optional, if you don’t have a computer you can hand write your cards instead. I have bad handwriting and wanted mine to look professional so I opted to print them.

If you are opting to print your cards your going to need some type of “office” or “print shop” or even “paint” program where you can type your page. I used Microsoft work starter that’s on my computer, use what ever program you have. (your layout steps might differ from mine)

After your page opens, go to your page layout, then drop down to the size. You’re going to want to lay your page out to 10x7 inches. That’s the size of your cards. I then went to margins, I made my left margin 5.5 inches, this way your only typing on the right side of the card. I left the other margins at the default setting. Make sure the orientation of your page is landscape. Then write out what you want inside the card. If you can’t think of anything there are a lot of pages online that have card sayings. Here’s one of many.

http://www.greeting-card-messages.com/what-to-write-in-a-christmas-card.php

After you have what you want inside your card load ONE card into your printer. Then print. After making sure it’s laid out the way you want print the rest of your cards.

If you are opting to glue or double sided tape your photos down, skip this step.

After all your cards are printed. Lay your card open, Take one of your photo prints lay it out the way you want it to be on your finished cards. I then stabbed tiny holes in each corner of the card to “mark” where I want the slits to be in the card. Go around all 4 corners of the card marking the placement of the card. (you could use a pen or pencil to mark the card placement, but they show in the end product)

I then cut straight slits, using the holes I poked in the card as a guide. Do all 4 corners.

I then slid the card into the slits in the card, I do the top of the card first making sure it’s straight, then put a very small piece of tape under the photo to lightly hold the card in place. (you can skip the tape, the photo wont fall out, it’s just a little extra) then do the bottom of the card into the slits.

Lastly Enjoy your new Christmas Cards.