Noel Cards

I have a rep for making my own Christmas cards. Seriously, one of my friends even mentioned my cards in the Christmas letter she sent out to all our friends! I am not bragging... I actually feel pressure to deliver. So far each year I have been fortunate enough to get an idea for the cards then work my fingers to the bone making them.  (I am open to ideas for this year!)

This was last year's card.

Supplies:
Coordinating 12 x 12 Christmas  paper. (I bought a tablet with a coupon so it was pretty inexpensive.)
Photos of your family. 3 1/2" square
Gluesticks
Time

For each card

Cut a 4" square from each of the four corners of the 12 x 12 paper. It will look kind of like this. Save the squares you cut. The inside of the card will be the plain side of the paper. The words will be glued to the printed side and the pictures will be on the plain side.

Fold each flap in toward the center.

Decide on what you want your card to say. I selected the word "Noel".

Writing.

Each square began with a letter in the word Noel. I downloaded some free Christmas fonts. I set up a table in a word processing program with 3 1/2" cells. I put one large capital letter in each square with the writing underneath it. Cut these out.

Stack everything (words and pictures) up so you can create an assembly line.

Put on a favorite Christmas movie and get to work.

With the flaps all folded in on the card, glue the N to the top flap. On the inside of that flap, glue the corresponding picture. (I had my pictures color copied. You could also use actual photographs.) Continue with each letter and each flap.

On the center of my card, I added an extra flap. Tape a square from a coordinating paper and put your message on that flap. Put a family photo under the flap. (Put the tape on the back of the flap so it doesn't show.)

I used scraps from all of the cards to decorate the back center of the card. The one shown is pretty simple (it was a leftover one,) but some of my others were pretty intricate with ribbons and mosaics.

When you fold your card for mailing, make sure you spell the word right. Don't make it say LEON!