Craft Project Week 12: Christmas Tree Card

In August, we launched a new Craft Project with Diana Ching who will set a series of creative projects every Thursday on our website and social media to give you ideas of things you can work on at home to build your own piece of art over a period of weeks.

This week’s project is called: Christmas Tree Card

Everyone likes a handmade greetings card and what better way to spend a chilly November afternoon than making a few special cards to send to friends or family. I’ve come up with three designs to be published here over three weeks that you can make at home with minimal materials – all you need are some card blanks, some Christmassy papers (craft paper or wrapping paper are fine, and if you have anything with a bit of glitter so much the better!), and maybe some Christmas “messages”.

If you’re already a card-maker you may have some or all of these materials to hand, or you may be able to recycle some old Christmas cards by cutting them up and using them instead of Christmas papers. You might be surprised what you can do with what you’ve got!

Here are instructions for the first of the three designs but remember, there are always more ways to achieve a similar effect or one that you like better, so have a play and see what you can do.

Card 1 – CHRISTMAS TREE

You will need: a blank card, Christmas papers, a small piece of lightweight cardboard (eg back of a cereal packet), glue stick, scissors, felt-tip pens, Christmas greeting message

Method (see photo for clarification!)

• Draw and cut a tall triangle shape, about 5 inches high, on the piece of cardboard.
• Take your Christmas papers and cut them into strips half an inch or so in width and of different lengths. You’ll need about ten strips in all. Vary the colours and patterns.
• Add a generous amount of glue to the triangle of card, and starting at the base, start sticking on your strips of paper all the way up to the top point. When the triangle is covered, take your scissors and trim the edges so you have a nice “clean” shape.
• Glue the decorated triangle to the front of the blank card.
• Using a small piece of glitter card or just a piece of coloured cardboard, cut out a small shape for the tree trunk and stick it in place at the base of the tree.
• Now take your felt-tips and draw some gift-wrapped presents at the base of the tree. Just simple squares and oblongs are fine. Use a contrasting colour pen to suggest ribbon and a bow.
• Also using a felt-tip pen, draw some stars in the sky.
• Now all you need to do is add a Christmas message. You may have some stick-on or peel-off messages, or you could cut out a greeting from an old Christmas card – or just write your own.

That’s it – simple but effective!

Don’t forget to share pictures of your creations with us so we can admire them! If you’re happy for MFT to share them on social media too to inspire others to take part, email them to Connie Ridout, Communications Lead at MFT, at connie@maryfrancestrust.org.uk

Thank you!

Diana

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