Homemade cards can be fun to create and great to receive. Dermot Flynnmakes it all sound easy, even for the craftily challenged
I started making my own Christmas cards about three years ago when I couldn't find anything I particularly liked in the shops, and I wanted to send something a little more personal than the usual "Seasons Greetings" that were knocking around at the time.
It's surprisingly easy and people get a kick out of getting something you have made yourself. The examples shown here took about two minutes each to make, once the preparation work has been done. In the case of the angel blowing the trumpet, I scanned one of my own drawings and then used it as a screen-printing template. However, what would have worked just as well would have been to photocopy the design onto thick paper or card and then simply fold it in half. You can be as lo-fi or as hi-tech as you want!
Another nice thing to do is to take the approach of a fine art print maker by signing and numbering the cards as a limited edition.
There are many simple techniques you can use - so simple in fact, you can get younger creative minds involved. Here are some of them:
Potato printingThis involves drawing a simple shape (in this case, a star or a snowflake) onto the flat side of a halved potato, and then using a craft knife or scalpel to cut away the pieces around the design. The prints themselves can then be made using ordinary poster paint or drawing ink.
Sponge printingThis is dead simple - cut a shape out of a piece of thick card (here I've done a reindeer) and place it over the card paper, using an old sponge. Once the paint has dried, quickly add details using a marker or ink pen. Make sure the paint or ink you are using is not too watery, otherwise it will bleed under the stencil and ruin the crispness of your design.
CollageMultiple cut-out shapes can be made in one go by folding some thin crepe or tissue paper over and over again into a square, drawing the shape on the top layer and then cutting through all the folds. Then just glue the shapes to your prefolded cards, and add detail using ink pens or pastels.
Here also are some useful tips when making cards, just to make your life easier:
How paper feels is just as important as how it looks.Buy packs of thick coloured card or watercolour paper in any good stationery or art material suppliers. Recycled paper and envelopes are also now available in much greater varieties. If you want to go the extra mile, I would suggest trying a specialist paper shop such as Daintree in Dublin's Camden Street (www.daintree.ie), which sells beautiful and unusual papers from all over the world. It's even possible to buy prefolded blank cards, which make life easy (however, these are a bit more expensive).
Score the card down the middle before folding to give a nice crisp edge- it makes all the difference. You can do this using a ruler and the end of a dinner knife.
Use standard sizes.As well as keeping the costs of the cards down, this will make sure that you are able to buy envelopes for the cards to go into. I generally use an A5 portrait format which is basically just an A4 sheet folded in half - it's really easy to find paper in this size as well as the corresponding envelopes.
Get help.The key phrase here is "batch production". Ask other members of your household to become involved - someone to do the folding, someone to glue or cut out, someone to paint (if needed), someone to stuff the envelopes and write addresses. This is also a really nice opportunity to showcase someone's work when sending out the cards. Set a child down in front of a pre-folded card and selection of materials and see what they come up with.
Alternatively, give a child a heavy pencil or marker and some paper, and ask them to draw something to do with Christmas. You can then use the photocopy method as mentioned before, or if you are tech-savvy; you can scan the image and print the cards out on an ordinary home inkjet printer.
And remember - this week is probably the best time to do it! I've left it until the last minute in previous years and I've been furiously printing, numbering, addressing and envelope stuffing to meet the An Post deadline, when I should have been doing the last of my Christmas shopping and getting into the festive spirit . . . If you don't get it together on time, you can do what the French do, and send New Year cards instead!