Christmas Cards {Trees and Snowflakes}

For day 2 of the Creative Christmas Countdown, Dilly-Dali Art shared some fantastic ways to make your own Christmas cards so the next day we pulled out our supplies to make some of our own as an advent activity.

I was way too optimistic about this and started preparing way too many things for us to be able to do in one afternoon.  Then I saw my dusty heart-shaped paper punch sitting in the drawer and decided we could use that to make some Christmas trees on our paper.  Of course, hearts are so simple to make even if you don't have a punch. 

I have so much scrapbook paper I bought on a major discount at a warehouse sale.  I had an entire pack of this polka-dot forest green that was perfect for Christmas trees.  Scraps of wrapping paper would be a great alternative if you don't have oodles of scrapbook paper like I have seemed to collect.

I pre-punched the hearts because the girls always get frustrated with the punch.  It takes a little more strength than they have to be able to make a clean punch.  I showed them how to glue them upside down onto their card starting at the bottom and working their way up to make a layered effect. 

Then I handed over some Q-tips and some paint to let them decorate their trees.

I ended up gluing Mina's tree to her card and she decorated it a bit with paint.  But she was much more interested in starting over with a blank card and painting to her heart's content.  I think it looks like a snowman, not sure if that's what it was meant to be. 

Next I wanted to let the girls use their favorite snowflake stencils with some craft chalks
to make another card.  The girls received these wonderful laminated paper stencils from a neighbor soon after Mina was born.  They have held up so well and the girls use them year round. 

The girls rubbed their Q-tips in the chalk and transferred the color onto their card.  After they were done with the chalk, I went over the design with slightly damp Q-tip to make it look like watercolor.

Immediately after we had finished the cards, Lou opened up one of her finished cards and began to write a story in it. 

Our snowflake cards and Mina's snowman card

Our finished Christmas tree cards {yes, some of them are floating}

Have you made some Christmas cards this year? 

If you have be sure to go link them up over at Dilly-Dali Art!