Project Description:

This card features a couple of popular Christmas motifs: a snowflake, and a snowman. It’s a design you could send to just about anyone — to a guy, to a gal, or to a family — even if you’re not sure about the recipient’s religious faith, or which holiday(s) they happen to celebrate.

This design makes a fantastic Christmas card, but you aren’t limited to using it that way; if you have a friend or acquaintance with a wintertime birthday, you could substitute a birthday sentiment and use it as a birthday card. Feel free to use it for other occasions (or non-occasions!) as well.

Craft Supply List:

• Clear acrylic snowflake and snowman shapes. The shapes I used were pages out of mini acrylic albums by Clear Scraps. There’s a snowflake mini album and a snowman mini album. You only need one page out of each album to make this card, so you will have plenty of album pages left over if you want to either a) make multiple cards like this, or b) use the albums for scrapbooking, to showcase your Christmas memories.
• Patterned Paper — I used a shiny metallic screen printed foil paper by a company which is now no longer in business. I think the shimmery foil was a nice touch for this particular design, but it isn’t a necessity; you could get interesting results using many different patterned papers. I think it would be nice to choose one with a white background or a snow theme, but the one you use is totally up to you.
• Cardstock
• Heavy paper such as Strathmore bristol board
• Stickers that look like snowflakes. These don’t have to actually be snowflake stickers; you could use the asterisks from a package of letter stickers to get this look.
• Christmas or holiday sentiment stamp, plus an appropriate colored ink to use for stamping the design. The “Holiday Hello” greeting I used was manufactured by Studio G.
• A coaster-sized paper lace doily
• Ribbon
• A paper trimmer, and / or scissors
• A scoring tool
• Paint markers
• Adhesive — For attaching the clear acrylic shapes, you’ll want to use a solvent-based adhesive such as Zip Dry paper glue, which dries clear and can be trusted to be strong enough to hold the clear acrylic pieces.
• A rough surface such as sandpaper or a nail file for making “sanded” spots on the clear acrylic

How to Make the Christmas Card — Free Card-Making Instructions

Gather your supplies and let’s get started.

First, let’s make the card front — which is the part of the card you see visible in the picture above.

To accomplish this, first we need the background, which will simply be a rectangle that you cut out of patterned paper. This is one of the places that I used the metallic foil paper. You’ll be substituting the patterned paper of your choice. Cut a rectangle shape out of this paper.

Then cut another rectangle, about a half an inch smaller. Attach it to the first rectangle using adhesive. When you stack it on top of the first rectangle, it will be positioned about 1/4 inch inside, all the way around.

Cut a piece off of the paper lace doily; you want to almost but not quite cut it in half. There should be a slightly larger piece, and a slightly smaller piece. You’ll want to grab the slightly smaller piece. Use your adhesive to attach it on top of the layered cardstock pieces you’ve created for the card front; you’ll want to position it on the lower left-hand side of the card, as pictured. This lace doily will contribute to the “snow-covered landscape” effect you’re trying to achieve.

Flip your patterned paper over to the back and trace a snowman motif onto the reverse side, using your clear acrylic snowman shape as a template for doing the tracing. Carefully cut out the snowman design and turn it over to the front.

To achieve a “frosty” effect on the snowman and snowflake shapes, use your rough surface to rub them briskly.

Use your paint marker to outline the edges of the snowflake shape.

Make a bow out of ribbon and tie it or attach it to the snowman shape.

Layer the snowman pieces on top of each other, with the clear piece being on top; use small dots of adhesive to attach them together. Then attach the entire piece onto the card front as pictured.

Using small dots of adhesive, attach your snowflake shape to the card front.

Stamp your sentiment onto cardstock and cut around it. Attach it to the card front, positioning it over the snowman’s tummy (or wherever you’d like it; feel free to move it to a different spot if you prefer.)

Stick the snowflake / asterisk stickers onto the card front in several places to resemble a snowfall.

Cut a supporting base for your greeting card using bristol board or heavy paper. Fold it in half with the assistance of your scoring tool.

Attach the card front to the card base.

If you’re giving the card to someone right away, you can write a greeting in the card and give it or send it to the recipient. Otherwise, add it to your card stash for later giving / sending.

Here’s hoping the recipient will love it!

CLICK HERE to find more FREE card making instructions and ideas!

Want to make any of these Christmas cards? If so, you’re invited to use our Free Christmas Card Making Ideas and Instructions

• Find More Christmas Card Making Ideas HERE

CLICK HERE to find the best craft supplies:

• Best papers for arts, crafts and card making
• Best adhesives for paper crafts

By Amy Solovay

About the Author: Amy Solovay is a freelance writer with a background in textile design. She holds a bachelor’s degree with a studio art minor; and she has also obtained another degree in textile design.

This page was last updated on 5-21-2021.