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Crafting with toddlers is a brave choice. Yet it’s so fun to get in the holiday spirit and introduce your little ones to the fun and joy of creating festive Christmas cards! I originally found this adorable Christmas card idea on Pinterest and put my own spin on the final product and I must say the cards turned out wonderful!
This DIY Christmas Card is not only fun and pretty, but cheap too! A typical store-bought Christmas card is around $5 right? Well, I spent $5 on the supplies at Dollar General and made 3 Christmas cards and had some left over materials!
My son, who coincidentally wore a Christmas shirt on this day, enjoyed the activity and was able to design almost the whole thing. My 1 year old (well, she’s 16 months) didn’t quite grasp what we were doing of course, but she thought the craft was fun anyway. She stayed entertained with the stickers while Jake Jr and I worked on the cards.
I am certain it will get more creative and fun as the kids get older and I am definitely adding this craft activity to our list of Christmas traditions. (Check out the list when you’re done here!)
Now, I normally order creative holiday cards from Lovepop or Minted because they always have a sale around the holidays and they can just mail them directly to whoever you want, but as my kids get older I am finding it more and more fun to get them involved. Plus, grandparents prefer handmade Christmas cards from their grandchildren so much more, right?
Anyway, for these Christmas cards you need…
Materials (found at Dollar General)
Christmas foam stickers $1/pack
White poster board paper $1/pc
Multicolored construction paper $1/pack
Glue stick $1
And you probably already have the rest…
Hot glue gun
Scissors
Pen/Marker
Envelopes
Paper cutter for accurate measuring and cutting
Anything else you’d like to add!
Christmas Card Decorating Instructions
First, measure the poster paper to be the right size. You’ll be folding it in half so make sure when it’s folded it fits your envelope! My cards were around 5 x 11.5 so that when folded they could fit in the 5 x 7 envelopes. I have a giant paper cutter so that helps for precise cutting.
2. Then, cut out two circles (sets of 2 for each card) from the construction paper, whichever colors you’d like. And let the kids stick the Christmas stickers to the circles, which magically become ornaments that you’ll glue to the cover of your Christmas cards!
3. Cut out small light-colored rectangles (from the construction paper pack) for the ornament tips/closures.
4. Write a Christmas message on one lightly colored paper or a piece of notebook paper or printer paper.
Optional: Cut out one or two square pieces from the construction paper, just big enough to frame the paper you wrote your season’s greeting on. I chose 2 borders, red and green.
5. Time to start gluing! Simply use the glue stick to glue your season’s greeting paper to each colored piece to get the border effect like in my photo. And I used the hot glue gun to glue the very back construction paper to the card. (So the green piece was glued to the card)
6. Now use the hot glue gun to glue the ornaments to the front of the card. I folded my card so that I knew where to place the ornaments. Make sure they are in the lower part of the front of your card so that you can have space for the ornament tops and to draw lines to represent strings.
7. Once the glue dries, the kids can stick the Christmas stickers around your season’s greeting inside the card. And I don’t know why, but my 3 year old just didn’t understand to avoid the wording and only stick in the white areas! It sort of drove me nuts! Anyone else get OCD moments when they do crafts with toddlers? Leave it in the comments for a laugh!
So that was it really! Very easy, very fun, not entirely mess free, but clean-up was quick. We made some little ornaments and placed those with a family Christmas photo in the envelopes with the cards. Get it in the mail by the 12th though, in case you didn’t notice we deal with snail mail here in the States around the holidays! 😉
BONUS! 5 More Adorable DIY Christmas Card Ideas I Found on Pinterest!
Now check out 25 Awesome Christmas Traditions to Start Doing With Your Family This Year!