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Cute Christmas Card Ideas That Kids Can Use
It was a Christmas tradition for our children to give a Christmas card to each child in their class, their teachers, the office ladies, the tuck shop ladies, their bus drivers and the lollypop man on the school crossing. Whenever we could, we'd include a small gift with the card, usually something that we have bought very cheaply or had been able to make at home as the children paid for them with their pocket money.
I miss those days of sitting at the kitchen table with the kids, and cardstock and paper and stickers and glue, lots and lots of glue, as they made their cards.
And I know that while we've outgrown that stage, there are many Cheapskaters who are just entering or are in the middle of, the class Christmas card era.
The last week of the school year is a frenzy of card and present giving and receiving. Cards come in all shapes and sizes in the shop, but they all have the same basic feel to them so don't think that you have to buy Christmas cards for the kids to hand out.
They are very easy to make and can be personalized very easily, and best of all, very cheaply.
Make cards out of coloured cardstock. You can get packs of different coloured card at discount stores. Simply fold the sheets into cards and let the kids decorate them. You will get two standard size cards from one A4 sheet of card by simply cutting the card in half either vertically or horizontally, and folding. Easy!
If you would rather buy them, Kmart sell ready packs of 50 cards with envelopes for $6 - that's just 12 cents per card and envelope set. Depending on the price of your coloured cardstock and a box of envelopes, these could be cheaper.
Here are a few card ideas that will be different than the usual cards bought at the $2 shop.
For bought cards, use glitter glue or puffy paint to accentuate features on bought cards. The kids can stick white cotton wool onto Santa's beard or a red pompom onto Rudolph's nose. Let them outline stars with a gold gel pen, sprinkle red glitter onto a sleigh that has had a glue stick run over it. They can use their imagination to create unique cards using bought ones as a base.
For homemade cards, stickers decorate cards just as well as drawings. Using scissors that create decorative edges (they are about 99 cents a pair from art and craft shops and some $2 shops), the kids can cut stars, Christmas trees, Santa and Rudolph and other shapes out of cardstock or even wrapping paper. Use Christmas themed cookies cutters as templates for the shapes. The shapes can be cut out and pasted on a larger piece of cardstock and given that special touch using stickers. If you're a crafter you may have punches of stars or snowflakes or Christmas trees the kids can punch out to stick onto their cards.
Remind your junior artistes to put a message on the card. If you have sentiment and greeting stamps, they would be perfect. Or there are sheets of greetings you can get from craft shops, Kmart, BigW, $2 shops that say "Merry Christmas" or similar. If buying them isn't in the budget or doesn't appeal, you can find plenty of greetings on the Internet. Print them on copy paper or write them directly on the card with gel pens or markers.
Here is a fun one to get you started:
"Have a holly, jolly Christmas
Hope you get lots of nifty gifties"
Attaching a little gift to the card or the envelope makes the card into a present. They don't need to cost a lot of money, they just add a little something extra to the card.
We have used candy canes ($2 a pack from the Reject Shop) to make Santa's reindeer, Mickey Mouse lollipops (again they were $2 pack from a department store), Lifesavers in little knitted stockings that can be used as tree decorations, quilted decorations made from scraps of fabric (a cookie cutter was the ideal template), a bouquet of wrapped boiled lollies (three lollies tied together with a wire bread tie which was then covered with green curling ribbon for the stem). One year we made bread dough stars, varnished them and put a length of string through them so they could be used for tree decorations.
All kids like to get chocolate so why not use a chocolate coin as a seal on the envelope? You can buy bags of chocolate coins covered in gold foil for around $2. Use a little blu tack to stick a coin onto the envelope once it is sealed. Don't use hot glue, the chocolate will melt (guess how I know that!).
Lastly, if you are doing cards for the whole class, use the class photo to make sure you haven't left a child out and make sure Junior addresses each one.
And this really is the last thing to remember: if you are using sweets or chocolate or any other edible gift please check that all the children can have them; there would be nothing worse than to give an allergic reaction along with the card. The class teacher should be able to tell you if there are any children with allergies in the class and what they are allergic or sensitive to.
Traditional cards are okay for classmates, but if your child has an imaginative mind, let them create cards that reflect their personality and how they feel about their classmates
I miss those days of sitting at the kitchen table with the kids, and cardstock and paper and stickers and glue, lots and lots of glue, as they made their cards.
And I know that while we've outgrown that stage, there are many Cheapskaters who are just entering or are in the middle of, the class Christmas card era.
The last week of the school year is a frenzy of card and present giving and receiving. Cards come in all shapes and sizes in the shop, but they all have the same basic feel to them so don't think that you have to buy Christmas cards for the kids to hand out.
They are very easy to make and can be personalized very easily, and best of all, very cheaply.
Make cards out of coloured cardstock. You can get packs of different coloured card at discount stores. Simply fold the sheets into cards and let the kids decorate them. You will get two standard size cards from one A4 sheet of card by simply cutting the card in half either vertically or horizontally, and folding. Easy!
If you would rather buy them, Kmart sell ready packs of 50 cards with envelopes for $6 - that's just 12 cents per card and envelope set. Depending on the price of your coloured cardstock and a box of envelopes, these could be cheaper.
Here are a few card ideas that will be different than the usual cards bought at the $2 shop.
For bought cards, use glitter glue or puffy paint to accentuate features on bought cards. The kids can stick white cotton wool onto Santa's beard or a red pompom onto Rudolph's nose. Let them outline stars with a gold gel pen, sprinkle red glitter onto a sleigh that has had a glue stick run over it. They can use their imagination to create unique cards using bought ones as a base.
For homemade cards, stickers decorate cards just as well as drawings. Using scissors that create decorative edges (they are about 99 cents a pair from art and craft shops and some $2 shops), the kids can cut stars, Christmas trees, Santa and Rudolph and other shapes out of cardstock or even wrapping paper. Use Christmas themed cookies cutters as templates for the shapes. The shapes can be cut out and pasted on a larger piece of cardstock and given that special touch using stickers. If you're a crafter you may have punches of stars or snowflakes or Christmas trees the kids can punch out to stick onto their cards.
Remind your junior artistes to put a message on the card. If you have sentiment and greeting stamps, they would be perfect. Or there are sheets of greetings you can get from craft shops, Kmart, BigW, $2 shops that say "Merry Christmas" or similar. If buying them isn't in the budget or doesn't appeal, you can find plenty of greetings on the Internet. Print them on copy paper or write them directly on the card with gel pens or markers.
Here is a fun one to get you started:
"Have a holly, jolly Christmas
Hope you get lots of nifty gifties"
Attaching a little gift to the card or the envelope makes the card into a present. They don't need to cost a lot of money, they just add a little something extra to the card.
We have used candy canes ($2 a pack from the Reject Shop) to make Santa's reindeer, Mickey Mouse lollipops (again they were $2 pack from a department store), Lifesavers in little knitted stockings that can be used as tree decorations, quilted decorations made from scraps of fabric (a cookie cutter was the ideal template), a bouquet of wrapped boiled lollies (three lollies tied together with a wire bread tie which was then covered with green curling ribbon for the stem). One year we made bread dough stars, varnished them and put a length of string through them so they could be used for tree decorations.
All kids like to get chocolate so why not use a chocolate coin as a seal on the envelope? You can buy bags of chocolate coins covered in gold foil for around $2. Use a little blu tack to stick a coin onto the envelope once it is sealed. Don't use hot glue, the chocolate will melt (guess how I know that!).
Lastly, if you are doing cards for the whole class, use the class photo to make sure you haven't left a child out and make sure Junior addresses each one.
And this really is the last thing to remember: if you are using sweets or chocolate or any other edible gift please check that all the children can have them; there would be nothing worse than to give an allergic reaction along with the card. The class teacher should be able to tell you if there are any children with allergies in the class and what they are allergic or sensitive to.
Traditional cards are okay for classmates, but if your child has an imaginative mind, let them create cards that reflect their personality and how they feel about their classmates
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