Fun and easy Christmas card ideas

3 quick and simple Christmas card ideas

by with 10 Comments CraftsFamily life

I know.  It is only October.

But the way this year seems to be going, it’ll be Christmas before we know it.

And I think most of us will be happy to get into the festive spirit a bit early this year anyway.

If you want to get a bit ahead of things, then spending a few hours making Christmas cards ready to send in December is a great place to start.  I’ve got three ideas here for Christmas cards that are so quick and simple to make, you can even get the children involved with putting them together.

 

Row of Christmas trees card

This fun card is quick and easy to make, and the best part is it’s so easy to create different looks by changing up the paper you use.  You can use Christmas-themed papers like I did, or keep it simple with plain paper in festive colours.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Card
  • Festive papers
  • Ruler and pencil
  • Scissors
  • Glue

 

Here’s what you do:

  1. Use your ruler and pencil to mark out simple tree shapes of different sizes on the coloured/festive paper.
  2. Cut the shapes out.
  3. Arrange them on the card, then once you’re happy with the design glue them in place.

 

And that’s it!

What I love about this card design is how adaptable it is.

You can make it with any size and shape of card, and change up the size of the trees to fit and to create different looks.

 

Simple Christmas wreath card

This design is as quick and easy to put together as the row of trees, and is just as effective.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Card
  • Different coloured/festive patterned papers
  • Circle punch (you can just use scissors if you don’t have a punch)
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Glue

 

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Cut a piece of coloured or patterned paper to fit across your card as a background, and stick it to the card.
  2. Use the punch to create circles from the different bits of festive paper (if you don’t have a punch just cut the circles out with scissors).
  3. Draw a faint circle on the background paper to use as a guide for your wreath.
  4. Arrange the circles you cut out on the pencil line, and when you’re happy with the layout glue them in place.

 

If you want to you can add in a few smaller circles, or some bows, or glitter to jazz the card up a bit.  Or you can just keep it nice and simple like I did.

This is another card that can be changed up really easily just by using different papers and colours and embellishments.

 

Christmas bauble string card

This last card is perfect to make at the same time as the Christmas wreath card because it can use all the same materials.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Card
  • Different coloured/festive patterned papers
  • Circle punch (you can just use scissors if you don’t have a punch)
  • Ruler
  • Coloured pen (gold, silver, or bronze work really well with this design)
  • Scissors
  • Glue

 

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Use the ruler and pen to draw lines down your card.  The number of lines you draw will depend on the size and shape of the card you’re using.  I used a thin, tall card so did 3 lines, but you might have more if your card is bigger.
  2. Cut out circles from the pieces of coloured/patterned paper using a punch if you have one, or scissors if you don’t.
  3. Arrange the circles down the lines you drew on the card, so they look like baubles hanging on strings.
  4. When you’re happy with how the design looks you can glue the circles down.

 

It’s worth spending a bit of time playing around with the position of the circles, to get a design that you’re pleased with.  Try and vary the spacing and mix up the designs and colours of the circles so the card looks balanced.

You can then leave the card like this, or you can draw on little bows at the tops of the circles, or decorate them a bit with some glitter to add a bit of sparkle.

 

 

So there you have it, three ideas for Christmas cards that are really quick and simple to make.

I think you could make a whole pile of these in an afternoon, perfect to then send out to all your family and friends over the festive period.

 

If you still want more ideas for Christmas cards to make at home, then you might like my button Christmas card and gift tag ideas.

Craft ideas for rainy days

5 easy creative ideas for rainy days

by with No Comment CraftsFamily life

When you’re at home with the children on a rainy day arts and crafts activities can be amazing for keeping everyone occupied and entertained.

The problem sometimes though is knowing what to actually do or make.  There are so many options that you can end up spending half the day debating which art supplies to get out and what to do with them.

If this sounds familiar, then this idea might help save your sanity.

Come up the a few craft activities or ‘themes’, and put together supplies for each of them in tupperware boxes or big zip up bags.  Then the next time you’re stuck in the house on a rainy day you can just pull one out and get started.

Here are 5 ideas for themes for creative activities to pop in your boxes or bags ready for the next rainy day:

 

Princess/fairy themed box

In this box you can put craft materials to make fairy wands and crowns.

You could include coloured card, scissors and glue, glitter, ribbons, pipe cleaners and stickers/gems for decoration.

I’ve got a blog post with full instructions on how to make a fairy wand if you’re not sure where to start with this.

 

Monster themed box

With just a few sheets on felt and some scissors you can make a build-your-own monster busy bag.

This one is great because you have the activity of cutting out the shapes (great for fine motor skills) and then the fun of playing with creating different monsters afterwards.

 

Rainbow themed box

There are so many options with a rainbow themed box.

You can put in some bits of paper and then pencils, crayons, pastels, and paints in the colours of the rainbow to see what different effects you get drawing rainbows with each of them.

You can just put paints and paper in, fold the paper in half, paint one half of the rainbow and then fold the paper and press down to mirror the other half of the rainbow.

Or you can put in paper, beads, feathers, fabrics, stickers, and sequins in the colours of the rainbow and let your child cut them up and create rainbow collages.

 

Flower themed box

This is a great theme for cheering up a rainy day.

You can put in flower-shaped stickers, fake flowers, flower-shaped foam pieces and use them to make pictures.

Another idea is to put in some paper and paints and some items to use to print some flowers.  Think toilet paper tubes that you can squish to make a petal shape.

If you need more inspiration then my flower photo frame and flower pictures and nice and easy to put together.

 

Butterfly themed box

Pop some paint, coloured paper and scissors in a box and you’ve got everything you need to do some butterfly paintings.

You could also make a box with coloured paper, crayons, stickers and other embellishments and let your child get imaginative and decorate a butterfly.  This is a great way to introduce the idea of symmetry to young children.

 

Which of these themes and activities would your child most like to try on a rainy day at home?

 

Fun lolly stick Christmas decorations

Lolly stick Christmas decorations #BostikBloggers

by with No Comment Crafts

It might still be quite early in December but Christmas is definitely in the air.

If you want a craft activity to do with your children to get in the festive spirit then take a look at these fun lolly stick Christmas decorations.

I’ve made stars and Christmas trees, using the same basic idea and same materials, which can be hung on the tree or propped up on the mantelpiece.

Simple lolly stick Christmas decorations

 

Here’s what you’ll need for both crafts:

  • Lolly sticks/craft sticks in various colours
  • Glue and glue dots
  • String or ribbon for hanging
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Mini pom poms
  • Sequins

Lolly stick Christmas ornament craft what you need

 

Lolly stick star ornaments

To make the star ornaments you need to get 5 lolly sticks and glue them together to make a star shape

Bostik lolly craft stick Christmas decorations

 

You can use glue or glue dots to do this and generally both options give you a bit of time to wiggle the sticks into place to make the perfect star shape.

Once the glue has dried and the star shapes are secure you can start to decorate them.

Bostik lolly craft stick Christmas star decorations

 

Using glue or glue dots stick mini pom poms or sequins all around the star.

Christmas star lolly stick pom pom craft

 

An alternative idea is to carefully wrap a pipe cleaner around the star.

Or you could go all out and do both pipe cleaners and sequins/pom poms.  It’s completely up to you and the look you want to go for.

Bostik lolly craft stick Christmas star decorations sequins pipe cleaners

Once you’ve decorated the stars you can stick a loop of string or ribbon on the back of one of the points so you can hang it up.

 

 

Lolly stick Christmas tree ornaments

To make the Christmas tree decorations you need to get 3 lolly sticks and cut about inch from the end of one of them.

Glue the 2 full sticks and the shortened one together to make a tree shape.  Then glue on the extra bit to look like the trunk.

Bostik lolly craft stick Christmas tree decorations

 

Once the glue has dried you can decorate your trees.

Bostik lolly craft stick Christmas tree decorations sequins pipe cleaners

The idea here is just the same as it is for the stars.

Decorate some trees with mini pom poms and sequins, and wrap pipe cleaners around others.

 

And there you have it!

Really simple and fun to make decorations to brighten up the house even more this Christmas.

 

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of craft items for the purposes of this post, but all ideas, words and photos are my own.

simple fun Christmas tree card

Easy homemade Christmas tree card #BostikBloggers

by with No Comment Crafts

The shops are filling up with gifts and decorations and the festive adverts have started appearing on TV, so I think it’s safe for us all to start thinking about Christmas.

If you like to send homemade Christmas cards to your friends and family then this craft activity is for you.

It’s a ridiculously easy Christmas tree card that looks really great and is bound to go down well with the people you give it to.

Easy homemade Christmas tree card button craft

 

 

Here’s what you need:

  • A card blank, or coloured card folded in half
  • 2 and a half green lolly sticks
  • Small green buttons
  • 2 yellow or brown buttons
  • Glue

simple christmas tree card what you need

The card really is simple to make.

First you need to get your lolly sticks and glue them together to make a Christmas tree shape.

simple christmas tree card lolly stick tree

 

Once the glue has dried on the tree, stick it to the card blank.

I used foam pads to attach mine, which gives the card a bit more depth, but you can use glue instead if that’s what you have at home.

simple christmas tree card lolly stick tree shape

 

Glue the green buttons along the lolly sticks.

Depending on the buttons you have you could go for a bit of a pattern here, or just stick them down randomly which is what I’ve done.

easy christmas tree card lolly stick buttons

 

To finish off, stick the 2 yellow/brown buttons on the card at the bottom of the tree to look like the trunk.

And there you have it, a really simple Christmas tree card that anyone would be happy to display on their mantelpiece.  It’s so simple you could get the children involved and make a whole pile of these to send to everyone on your list.

easy christmas tree card

easy fun christmas tree card

 

You don’t need to stop at Christmas cards with this idea.

You could make a smaller version to use as gift tags for your presents.  Or make the tree but instead of sticking it to the card you could attach some thread to the top and hang it from your actual Christmas tree.

 

If you like this idea you might also like my button snowman gift tag and Christmas tree card craft activity.

 

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of craft items for the purposes of this post, but all ideas, words and photos are my own.

Colour and shape match robot game

Robot shape and colour match game #BostikBloggers

by with No Comment Crafts

The theme for this month’s Bostik Bloggers craft project is robots.

There were so many possibilities of crafts we could make with this theme, but in the end I decided to make a robot shape and colour match game.

It’s perfect for young children learning their colours and shapes, and is great to use in a busy bag to keep them entertained while you’re out and about.

Robot shape and colour match game (2)

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Robot picture template.  Click here to download.
  • Coloured card
  • Scissors
  • Glue/glue dots
  • Stickers and embellishments (optional)

Robot colour shape match game what you need

 

Making the game is really easy, here’s what you need to do.

Download the robot pictures and print them out.

If you’d rather you can make your own designs and print them out, or draw them by hand.

There are 2 robots per A4 sheet, so once printed cut the sheet in half so each robot is on it’s own A5 size piece of paper.

For the red robot, cut a piece of red card to A5 size and stick the red robot picture to it.  This makes the game sturdier and reinforces the colour learning.

Do the same with all the other colours.

Robot shape and colour match game

 

Now your robot cards are ready you can decorate them with stickers and embellishments if you want.

We kept ours simple and decorated them with a few dots of brightly coloured glitter glue to look like little lights.

Robot colour shape match game decorate sheets

 

Next you need to cut out the shapes.

For the red robot, cut out 2 semicircles, 2 circles, a triangle and 2 squares the right size to fit over the shapes in the picture.

Repeat for all the other colours.

Robot colour shape match game cut out shapes

Start playing!

The aim of the game is to match up the shape pieces, in the right colours, to the shapes on the robot cards.

Mix all the shape pieces together and pick a robot card to complete.  Then sort through the shape pieces to find the ones that match the card you’ve chosen.

When you play this alongside your child you can talk to them about the names of the colours and the shapes.

You could have a race to see who can find the colours and shapes for their robot first.

They can also play independently, simply finding the right pieces and matching them to the ones on the boards.  It’ll hopefully be enough to keep them entertained for a bit while you’re out and about or if you need a few quiet minutes at home.

Robot shape and colour match game finished item

 

If you wanted to take this a step further you could turn it into a game using a dice.

You could make a dice with the colours on, and one with the shapes on and take turns to roll them and try to be the first to complete a board.  Or you could just use a normal dice and assign the colours and shapes to numbers.

This would be good for slightly older children, as you can write the numbers, shapes and colours in a list and the children can then practice their reading each time they roll the dice.

However you decide to play, just have fun!

 

Download your robot templates here

Disclaimer: I was provided with craft items for the purposes of this post, but all ideas, words and photos are my own.

fun greeting card for cyclists

A simple bike themed greeting card #BostikBloggers

by with No Comment CraftsUncategorized

If you need a birthday card, or Father’s day card maybe, for someone who loves bikes and cycling, then this simple bike themed card might be just what you need.

It’s really quick and easy to make, and you only need a few materials to be able to put it together.

simple bike themed greeting card

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • A card blank, or piece of card folded in half
  • 2 buttons
  • Glue
  • A pen (or a few pens in different colours if you fancy something more colourful)

Bike themed fathers day birthday card what you need

 

Making the card is really super easy.

First you need to glue the two buttons down for the wheels of the bike.  Then draw the rest of the bike around them.  I’m not the best at drawing so kept my bike really simple but you could draw something a bit more elaborate if you wanted to and have the skills!

bike themed button card fathers day birthday

 

Then all that’s left to do is write the caption above the bike.

I used the caption ‘have a wheelie great day’, and went with simple handwriting.  Full disclosure here, I wrote the phrase directly on my card first and it went a bit wonky.  So I wrote it again on a little piece of card and stuck that over the original writing.  I actually quite like how this looks, as it gives a slight 3d element to the card.

If you’d rather you could type the phrase on the computer and play around with different fonts to find something you like.  Then just print it out small enough to fit on the card, and stick it on.

Have a wheelie great day simple bike theme greeting card

And there you have it.

A really simple greetings card for the bike (and pun) lover in your life.  I think this card would be great for Father’s day and for birthdays, or even just as a general note card for people who still like to send letters in the post!

You don’t have to use this phrase either, you could go with something like ‘I think you’re wheelie great’ or ‘I wheelie love you’, pretty much any phrase that would normally have the word ‘really’ in it.

 

If you’ve still got more buttons lying around to get creative with, then this family cycling picture idea from Kelly Allen Writer looks like a fab crafty activity to do with your children.

 

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of craft items for the purposes of this post, but all ideas, words and photos are my own.

silver and purple fairy wands craft activity

Fun and easy fairy wand craft #BostikBloggers

by with No Comment CraftsUncategorized

This month’s theme for us Bostik Bloggers to get crafty with is ‘creatures’.

We’re not talking creepy crawlies though.  We’re talking magical creatures, like fairies and unicorns.

I had a look through the box of crafting goodies that I was sent and decided to make some fun (and easy) fairy wands.

How to make a fun and easy fairy wand craft

I decided to make two slightly different wands, and here’s what you’ll need altogether to make both of them.

  • Sparkly silver card
  • Purple sticky backed paper
  • Card stock
  • Pink and purple pipe cleaners
  • Sequins or beads
  • Ribbon
  • Scissors
  • Glue dots/glue

 

simple fun fairy wand craft

 

How to make the silver star fairy wand with pink ribbons

Get 2 pink pipe cleaners and twist them together to make the wand handle.

Twisting together 2 or more pipe cleaners just makes the wand a bit sturdier than if you just use a single pipe cleaner.

pink pipe cleaner fairy wand

 

Next, cut out 2 star shapes from the piece of silver sparkly card.

I used a star shaped cookie cutter as a template for mine, but you can just draw them freehand if you don’t have anything to use to draw around.

Then cut your ribbon into several thin strips, just a little bit shorter than the pipe cleaners.  I used pink ribbon, mainly because that was what I had to hand.  I think this would look so beautiful if you used a few different colours though.

silver star fun easy fairy wand craft

 

Use glue dots, or a big blob of glue, to stick one end of the pipe cleaners and half of the ribbon strips to the back of one of the star shapes.  Stick the rest of the ribbons to the back of the other star.

silver pink ribbon fun fairy wand craft

 

Use a few more glue dots to stick the two silver stars together.

And simple as that, the first wand is finished!

silver star pink ribbon fun fairy wand craft

 

How to make the pink and purple sparkly fairy wand

Get three pipe cleaners and thread each one with some sparkly sequins or beads.  Try to space them out quite evenly along the length of the pipe cleaners.

Then twist or plait the pipe cleaners together.  I did a rough plait with mine and rather like the way it turned out.

simple fun children fairy wand craft

 

Draw two star shapes on the back of the purple sparkly sticky backed paper.

Again, I used a star cookie cutter as a template for mine.  Then cut them out and stick them to a piece of card, then cut them out again.  This way the star will be a lot more study and strong.

simple fun children fairy wand craft purple stars

 

Use glue dots or a few blobs of glue stick the pipe cleaners to the back of one of the stars and then press the two stars together.

If you’ve used glue then leave the whole thing to dry for a bit, but if you used glue dots then you can start doing some fairy magic with your wand straight away!

pink and purple fun easy fairy wand craft

 

 

So there you have it, two really easy, really fun fairy wands that you can put together for some magical fun.

There are so many possibilities with this craft too.  You can create so many different wands depending on the colours and materials you have available to use.  I think a rainbow themed one would be really lovely!

sparkly fun easy fairy wand craft

 

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of craft items for the purposes of this post, but all ideas, words and photos are my own.