I DIY: Christmas Cards

This year, I really wanted to make some cool and crafty things to give out to my friends and family. Though most of my gifts were handmade, there were still some people that I wanted to have a card, but didn't have a gift for them.

After perusing all sorts of blogs and crafty websites, I conglomerated what was in my head to make these!

It got a little messy... I broke a NEEDLE!

The initial idea of a card made with fabric came from seeing these valentines, from the Purl Bee. I just warped it and added some of my own touches to make it the perfect christmas card.

To make your own, gather the following:

• your choice of cardstock
• a scrap of festive fabric (my pieces were probably only 3 inches square each)
• thread that coordinates with your fabric
• seed beads of assorted colors
• scissors and good lighting!

First decide how large you want your cards to be. I had cardstock that was meant to be folded into a greeting card size, so I just cut each one in half to make two cards.

Next, cut your fabric into little tree shapes. I decided how big I wanted mine to be and then cut a long strip of fabric and marked little triangles onto it.

Now, here's the only hard part. Before you even think about trying your first card, TEST your sewing machine. I sewed a whole bunch of scraps onto paper until I decided how tight I wanted the stitches, where I would start on the trees and how many times I would stitch them. So make sure you are happy with what you do on those cards before you start the first one!

Sew each tree to a card, and don't worry if you mess up, the fabric can be reused and the paper, well, you can punch it full of holes and use it as anger management.

Once all of your trees are sewn on, you can add the little zig-zag down the side, like I did. Again, test your stitch width and length on a scrap of paper before your cards.

Now you are ready for the seed beads. (It's really difficult not to type seed beeds. Weird.) Easy one here, just thread a needle (with dark colored thread, preferably) and knot the end before putting each bead on with one stitch. Tie on the back and snip off excess thread. Oh, and occasionally I found a bead that wouldn't fit over my needle. No big deal, toss it back and use another!

I will say that the back of these cards are not especially pretty, but I liked the homemade feel that you got from feeling the stitching.

There you have it! I hope this comes in handy for you!