DIY Christmas Cards


Here, step by step instructions on how to make these DIY Christmas Cards. It’s not complicated when you break it down, I promise. Come on in, give it a go, if they turn out a bit dodge we’ll bin em and never mention it again. 

You can do it. Trust.

So I totally pinched the idea from vlogger Lily Pebblesbeautiful wedding stationary, by illustrator Olivia Whitworth. Do go and admire it in all its original, professional glory. Sigh

The ivy-type greenery and lights were giving me Yuletide vibes, so I made these Christmas cards in homage. Just dim the lights and squint a bit. See? Nailed it.

Some are better than others. Homemade innit.

Ingredients:

  • White card (or these blank cards)
  • Black fineliner (I used a Sharpie)
  • Bronze metallic pen (like the one from this pack)
  • Gold metallic pen (I used this one)
  • Watercolour paint (although any green paint, pencil or crayon would do just fine)

Method:

1. With a black fineliner, draw a curved horizontal line across the width of your card. Then from the top edge, draw a few wavy vertical lines of different lengths. The vertical lines should be half the card length or less.


2. Draw some smaller lines coming out from the horizontal and vertical lines. These will be your leaf stalks. Alternate these small lines so some point upwards, some downwards (or left and right, on the verticals).

3. Draw leaves on the end of the stalks. I was going for ivy. Holly would be good also. Seasonal.


4. Draw a straight vertical line from the top edge, about a third of the card length, where you’d like the cage light to be. Put a little rectangle on the end of that line, then a triangle, then another little vertical line. 

5. Add a light bulb to the end. The lightbulbs are essentially little triangles and rectangles as the fitting, a bulb shape, and some squiggly lines as the filament. Easy.


6. Draw four lines from the first triangle, to make a pyramid shape around the lightbulb. 

7. Add a bunch more lines to finish the cage fitting. I can’t describe it in words you guys, see image above. I am an excellent blogger.


8. Add some more lightbulbs.

9. Write Merry Christmas etc along the bottom. This is the hard bit. You could use a stamp, or stickers, or go for an easier font. I attempted a calligraphy-type style, which was semi successful I think. I have tips…

10. Google ‘Merry Christmas typography’ and find an image you like. Try to copy the shape freehand, with a pencil. When you are happy, go over the pencil with the fineliner. 

I know. I’ve put a calligraphy set on my Xmas list.

11. With the fineliner, thicken the vertical parts of the writing. See it start to slowly look less rubbish. 

12. Extend the tails of the ‘C’ and the ‘M’ so that they flow across the back of the card.


13. Use the copper metallic pen to colour in the light fittings, and the gold pen on the lightbulb and filament.


14. Paint the leaves. I mixed green, brown and blue with a bit of white to get a muted colour. Don’t worry about staying inside the lines, just dab it on there. 

Finished! Merry Christmas! (Too soon? Really? Aw.)

If painting is too much faff, just colour in the leaves with a green pencil, or whatever you have to hand. My first edition cards were filled in with green felt tip pen, so if you get one of those in the mail it means I like you a bit less. Just kidding, glad tidings loved ones. 

Til next time,

Hayley



Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s