Tags
#art, #card, #challange, #christmas, #craft, #dedication, #design, #family, #friendship, #fun, #glitter, #homemade, #hullabaloobellparties, #love, #passion, #snowman, #toddler
As I’ve got older, I have begun to really appreciate the value of hand made gifts and cards. The personal touch is worth so much as the time taken and practice given to designing, creating and making something unique for another person is a great way of showing your love for them.
As we all know, it takes dedication, persistence and a bucket full of patience to hand make Christmas cards. As a mum of a gorgeous 2 year old I decided that we would make it our mission to hand make every single card we gave to each person to help make them feel extra special.
The snowman cards we made were very simple to do and looked quite effective…
All you need is;
- Polystyrene balls both large and small
- a knife (keep away from your child obviously)
- A5 coloured card
- felt tip pens
- glue
- glitter
Method
To make the snowman, I prepared the polystyrene balls by dividing them in half using a sharp knife. The small balls for the snowman’s head and the large ball for the body.
My son squeezed the glue onto the flat side of the divided ball and carefully stuck it down, then did the same for the head placing it on top of the body.
He then blobbed glue for the ‘snow’ and a squiggle underneath the snowman for the ground and sprinkled the glitter on top.
When the glue had dried, we drew on the snowman’s eyes, nose and mouth along with buttons and a hat.
You can be as creative as you like, maybe add a textured scarf or stick crystles for buttons, maybe add a pipe.
We chose to keep them simple as made over 50 in total – which still wasn’t enough (the only down side to refusing to use standard cards as it meant some friends missed out)
My advice would be that if you’r going to hand make Christmas cards, to START EARLY! maybe early November as not to stress yourself out on the run up to Christmas as each and every one should be made with care and love.
Be prepared for MESS, especially when making with a small child. Our lounge was covered in glitter and glue at times… but seeing my son get so involved in the process and having fun made it worth the chaos.
The one and one interaction was great before heading out somewhere for the day or after a day apart due to being at work. Over the weeks we were making them, I noticed his speech & language skills develop… from ‘Gli Gli’ (glitter) to ‘squeeze hadda’ (squeeze harder) as he insisted on squeezing the glue onto the card himself. The delight on his face when he saw the finished product ‘oooh ho man! Yey!‘ Concentration and motor skills also have scope to develop and flourish during the process.
I challenge anyone who may stumble across this post, to be creative and think about the card you send next year. I want to encourage you to make your own cards even if its just one to a loved one putting all busyness aside, as they will certainly appreciate the time and effort you have put into making them their own unique card.