Holiday Cards

Honestly, with the birth of my son I decided not to send handmade cards anymore for Christmas. I only send them to a few crafty friends of mine (so that I look cool). But otherwise for holiday cards, I'm digital. I focus on taking the very best picture I can, and I take that picture to Target and have the cards printed (44 cents per card).

But since I do need a few, here are some that are so simple you can forget the computer for a change. All you need is a Cosmo Oh Joy paper crafting kit and some alphas and snowflake embellishments. Use what you have, I did. I even made the background the white card to make life a little easier. Some of the cards are clearly Christmas-y and some are non-traditional. I like to have a mix just in case.

Noel Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Yuletide and Merry & Bright; plus Basic grey alphas.

Instructions: Cut Yuletide patterned paper into a square; cut Merry & Bright paper into a strip. Adhere alphas.

Snow Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Frosty (front and back) and Reindeer Games; plus Basic Grey alphas and K&Co snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut strips of patterned paper, arrange as shown. Adhere alphas and snowflake.

Deck the Halls Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Wrapping paper and Oh Joy Strip Tease; plus K&Co snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut a rectangle of wrapping paper patterned paper. Leave a white boarder. Cut phrase out of strip tease patterned paper, all the way to the edge. Adhere paper and snowflake.

Happy Holidays Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper Strip Tease; plus Basic Grey alphas and Me&My big ideas snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut strip tease patterned paper into small rectangle. Adhere alphas and snowflake.

I don't think I told you the story of my mailing lumpy cards. You'll like this one. Before I had kids, I signed up to make my sister's bridal shower invitations. They were so pretty, I think even Martha Stewart would have been proud. But man were the flowers lumpy. Anyway, I finished them (30 plus), addressed them and mailed them. A week later my mom calls me to tell me that my sister is miffed with me, why haven't I finished the invitations. I scratched my head and told my mom I had. Another week goes by and at the end of that week my mother gets a phone call from the Rocky Mount Postal Service, stating that they have all these damaged cards with her return address on them and that they clogged up and broke the sorting machine.

In the end, they did mail the cards to my mom. She had to call everyone with the details of the bridal shower and gave them the invitation there. I think the moral of the story is that if you break the postal service machine, you should definitely put someone else's return address on the envelope. I did actually do handmade cards (very, very flat ones) for a year or two after that. But I'm always afraid now. Which is a big part of the reason I go digi for mass mailings.

Happy Tuesday!