DIY Wedding Table Numbers

Here is another wedding craft that we didn't get to use.  I've included a video tutorial below.  I made it last year before the world went to heck, and I had much higher hopes for my wedding crafting then.  I never got around to making the SVG files, but I do have some PNG files.

Here are the templates I made.  You'll note that the circular base is not included b/c I didn't get around to making a PNG template for it, but you just have to cut a circle larger than the base of the numbers and cut a slit in the middle to insert the number through.  

DIY Stickers - No Sticker Paper Needed!

 

Adorable stickers are one of the surest ways to put a smile on someone's face.  This craft is suitable for crafters of all ages (perhaps with supervision in some cases, as it does use scissors), and you don't need anything fancy to make them.  I've included a video tutorial below, and keep scrolling for a written tutorial.

Also, if you love these cute little foods, Brian designed them.  He sells a pair of leggings with this print on his Etsy store, Wayton Designs.  He has also promised me a dress with this print, so that should be coming at some point in time.

Materials:

*Parchment paper

*Waxed paper

*Designs (either hand drawn or printed)

*Glue stick

*Packing tape

*Scissors

Directions:

*Cut out the designs you would like to use for your stickers.

*Attach a strip of packing tape to a piece of parchment paper.

*Glue your sticker designs on top of the packing tape.  If the stickers are bigger than a single strip of packing tape, you can layer another piece of packing tape immediately below the first before gluing down your sticker designs.  Let dry.

*Use another strip or strips of packing tape to seal in your sticker designs so they are less likely to get damaged.

*Cut around your stickers, leaving about 1/4" of excess tape along all sides.  This will help keep your sticker designs sealed in and minimize the likelihood of damage.  Peel the parchment paper backing off, and your stickers are ready to use.

*If you're not ready to use your stickers yet, you can place them sticky side down on a sheet of waxed paper until you're ready to use them.  The stickers may stick to the waxed paper a bit, but I found that this was a better option for long term storage, as the stickers tend to fall off parchment paper.

DIY Book Ornament

 

Now that I've finished my PhD, I've finally had the chance to get back into reading, and have been chipping away at the edits on my novel, which has been in the works for a while now.  I thought it would be fun to make a book ornament for my tree to celebrate my writing progress as well as my return to reading.  I used scrap paper to make the pages for my ornament, and since the scrap paper happened to have text from my work in progress, I decided to make a mock cover for my work in progress.  Now my novel is actually a horror novel, so this mock cover does not at all give the right impression, but I didn't have a lot of time to work on it and there's a good amount of symbolism in it, so it worked for me.  I've included my mock cover below in the directions section, in case you wanted to use it, but if you google miniature book cover, you can find tons of printable book covers that are free for personal use.

Materials:

*Matte photo paper
*Scrap or plain printer paper
*Two jump rings
*Two pairs of jewelry pliers
*Sewing needle
*Ribbon or thread
*Glue
*Ruler
*Pencil
*Scissors

Directions:

*Print out a copy of your cover design onto matte photo paper.  I'm including the mock cover I made below, but you can also find tons of printable mini book covers online that are free for personal use.

*Cut out your book cover image and fold it into a cover shape.

*Using a ruler and pencil, section your paper into strips.  Mine were a little over 1.5" wide, the width of the ruler, but you may want to make yours larger or smaller, depending on the desired size of your ornament.  (I messed up on the first strip, so that's why there's a set of double lines.)

*Cut out your strips and accordion fold them to fit inside your book.

*Use a sewing needle to poke a hole in the spine of the cover and link two jump rings through the hole.

*Cluster your accordion folded pages together and glue them into the spine of the book.

*Slide some ribbon or thread through the top jump ring and tie it off to form a loop so you can hang up your ornament.

And that is how you can make your very own book ornaments.  I'm excited for this new addition to my tree, and hopefully in a few years I'll be able to make a different one with the actual cover for this novel :)

DIY Alice in Wonderland Paper Doll Costume

     Looking for a relatively inexpensive yet cute costume idea?  Why not try making a paper doll costume?  I opted for an Alice in Wonderland look. but you can use these techniques to make your own custom design too.  Add some cartoon makeup if you'd like to give your face a paper doll vibe (I just winged it, but there are tons of tutorials out there on how to do cartoon makeup.  Here's one that looks pretty good, and certainly more skillful than my attempt).

Materials:

*1-2 sheets of blue poster paper.  I was able to get away with just one, but it was a tight fit.  A good rule of thumb would be that if you are making the costume for someone who wears about size 12-14 kids clothes, then you can probably get away with just one sheet, but if you're making it for someone who wears larger sizes or is tall, then you probably will need two sheets.
*1-2 sheets of white poster paper.  Since the pinafore apron is narrower and shorter than the dress, you probably have a little more leeway here, but I'd still pick up an extra sheet of poster paper if you're unsure.
*Red cardstock, poster paper, or construction paper
*Black marker
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Glue
*Black or blue ribbon
*Duct tape
*Dress or romper with little stretch
*Ruler
*Black poster paper
*Headband
*Form fitting clothes, ideally ones close to your skin tone, to wear underneath.

Directions:

*Take a dress or romper that fits you or your intended recipient well and isn't stretchy.  Lay it down on the sheet or sheets of poster paper you're using to create the dress.  If you're making this in two pieces, I'd recommend lining things up so the top of the dress lies on one sheet of poster paper and the skirt or shorts portion lies on the other.

*Trace around the dress, leaving about an inch or so extra space along all sides.  One tricky part of making this is that if you don't want what you're wearing underneath to show through the costume, you'll need the dress to be wide enough to hide it.  This is why initially you want to add a lot of extra room.

*Cut out the dress shape.  Put on the clothes you'll be wearing underneath the paper doll costume, ideally something form fitting like a cami and shorts or leggings, and hold the dress up in front of you.  See if there are places along the dress that need to be trimmed or taken in, keeping in mind that anything you take away can't be added back.  If the dress is in two pieces, you can tape the two pieces together with some duct tape along the back.  We'll reinforce the waist seam later, but for now you just need it to hold together.

*Make adjustments to the dress as needed.  Here's what my dress looked like after alterations:

*Once you're happy with the shape of the dress, it's time to start working on the pinafore apron.  I made the apron by tracing the shape of the dress onto the white poster paper and using a ruler to draw an apron shape inside the dress shape.  That way, I knew the apron should fit the dress perfectly.  I've included a picture of what I did below.  Note that I had to turn up the contrast a ton so that the pencil lines would be visible.  This works best if you can make the apron as a singular piece (it adds more stability at the waist and will hide the waist seam, so even if you had to make the dress in two pieces, I'd recommend making the apron as one continuous piece if possible.

*Glue the apron to the dress.

*Optional: Cut out a red heart shape from your red paper of choice and glue it to the apron.

*Use a black marker to define the edges of the pieces and make the dress look more cartoony.

*Next it's time to make the tabs.  Sketch out six tab shapes on the leftover poster paper using a pencil.  Follow the pencil line with a black marker, making dashed lines like you will often see on paper dolls.

*Glue one tab to either shoulder and tabs to either side of the waist.  Set aside two for the bow.

*Draw a bow shape onto black poster paper and cut it out.

*Use a black marker to add an outline and details.  The details may not show up super well, depending on how dark the black of the poster paper is.

*Glue tabs to either side of the bow.

*Next it's time to figure out how to fasten the dress on you.  I've seen some people attach Velcro to the dress and also to the clothes they will be wearing, so the dress just sticks on.  However, since I didn't want to mess up the clothes I'd be wearing under by permanently affixing Velcro to them, I decided to use ties instead.  Cut off two lengths of black ribbon which are long enough to tie comfortably around your waist.

*Turn the dress over and glue the ends of the ribbons to the waist area.  Let dry.

*Glue two to the shoulders as well.  Let dry.

*Once dry, reinforce the ribbon with a little duct tape.

*If you cut the dress from two different sheets of poster paper, you may want to reinforce the waist.  You can cut off strips of excess poster paper and glue them across the waist seam in the back, or perhaps use some thin cardboard, like what you might get from a cereal box.

Tip: One tricky piece to this costume is that since it's 2D and we're 3D, it's easy for the costume to shift and show what you're wearing underneath.  Wearing tight fitting clothes will help minimize the impact, and wearing clothes close to your skin tone will make it less noticeable.  I was wearing a pale pink romper under my costume for the photos.  Here's a picture of me turned slightly to the side, so you can see behind the costume.  Since the romper is so close to my skin tone, I feel like it's less noticeable than if I'd worn a high contrast color, like hot pink or neon green.

Monsters are Real Quote Art

Content warning: Anxiety, panic disorder

     Today's post is not a typical craft post.  Sure, there is a craft, and if you just want to print this quote art I designed and use it for your personal use, it's at the end of the post.  However, I wanted to use this space to tell you a little about how this art came to be.
     The beauty of Stephen King's "Monsters are real..." quote is that it resonates with many of us, even if our struggles are different.  We all have our own monsters and ghosts that we are grappling with.  When I see this quote, my mind goes to the main monster living inside of me: anxiety.

My Anxiety Journey

     Before we get into my inspiration, I want to give you a brief overview of my anxiety journey.  Feel free to skip this section if you already know what it's like to live with anxiety and don't want to be reminded of how much it sucks.
     I have exhibited symptoms of anxiety from a young age, but it took me until I was in my mid-20s to piece together what was going on with me.  Up to that point, I thought I was just cautious and a bit of a worrier.  I didn't realize that there was something atypical about the way I reacted to the world.
     Everything changed during the summer of 2014, when I had to get my wisdom teeth removed.  During the weeks leading up to the surgery, I had to attend a couple of consultations with my oral surgeon.  Something about these appointments triggered in me not only anxiety, but also panic.  To quote from my old anxiety blog I started that I never did anything with, "I would sit there in the waiting room sweating buckets, my heart hammering away a mile a minute as my stomach churned like a washing machine, wanting to flee to the safety of the car and feeling trapped and helpless because I couldn't."
     In retrospect, I had probably had many panic attacks before this series of events.  Since I did not know panic disorder was a thing, I thought what was happening to me was a physical ailment.  I have dealt with bouts of gastrointestinal unrest since childhood, and these instances often seemed to correlate with events happening in my life.  For example, during my first two years of college, I would feel sick for the first week of the semester, missing some, if not all, of the classes that week.  I was afraid each time a new semester approached that I would get sick and - lo and behold - I would then get sick.
     So the issues had existed long before my wisdom tooth extraction, but what happened after my surgery was that any time Brian and I would go somewhere, I would feel anxious, and that anxiety would quickly escalate to panic.  We would get three quarters of the way to our destination and then it would become too much and I would be on the verge of tears, begging Brian to turn back.  This was when I finally realized that I wasn't getting sick all the time; I was having panic attacks.
     I've been in treatment twice for my anxiety and hopefully will be back in treatment again here soon.  I was hoping that once I finished my Ph.D., I'd finally be able to relax and get things under control, but then the world turned upside down and here I am, as anxious as ever.  I was rereading my old anxiety blog as I was writing this post, and even though these entries were from four years ago, so many of the issues I was experiencing then I'm still struggling with.  Anxiety sucks.

The Meaning Behind My Quote Art

     Anyway, that's enough about my anxiety.  Now let's talk about what this quote art represents to me.  I wanted to find some way to visually represent my anxiety.  Since it is a part of me, I thought I could achieve this by having two Ambers in the image, one to represent me and one to represent my anxiety.  The Amber that's curled up behind the tree crying?  That's me in the throes of a panic attack.  The Amber with the red cape is the physical manifestation of my anxiety.  To me, anxiety is red.  It is screeching red, alarm sirens blaring ad infinitum red.  That's why anxiety is wearing a red cloak and red lipstick.  Anxiety can bring with it feelings of helplessness and despair, which I envision as pitch black, the hopeless color of a starless night.  This is why the rest of anxiety's outfit is black.  I'm sure there's a lot more symbolism you can read into this image, but if there is anything else there, it probably wasn't something I consciously invoked.

Printable Monsters Are Real Quote Art

Materials:

*Printed 8.5"x11" "Monsters Are Real" Quote Art
*8.5"x11" photo frame.

Directions:

*Print out a copy of this quote art, ideally on matte photo paper.

*Place the image in the photo frame.

Decorating My House for Pokemon GO Fest

     Since Pokemon GO Fest was virtual this year, players could celebrate from the comfort of their homes.  I decided to turn a corner of my living room into a Pokemon paradise for the event.  I primarily used the printables that Niantic provided, but I also added in Meowth, Snorlax, Zubat, Pikachu, and Gastly plushies I've made (Pikachu and Gastly construction tutorials to come), as well as a Pokeball throw pillow I put together before the event.

     I documented the crafting and decorating process in the vlog style video below.  I hope it gives you some ideas for your next Pokemon soiree or also if you just want to decorate your house with Pokemon.

Whimsical Alice in Wonderland Wedding Sign

    This wedding craft didn't actually make an appearance in our wedding (maybe next year), but it was too fun not to share.  With some slightly different labels for your arrows, you could easily repurpose this idea for an Alice in Wonderland tea party, as well as all sorts of other events.  This one was a lot of trial and error, so I've included just the video tutorial, as I think it shows my crafting process better than I could articulate in words.

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Teacup Thank You Cards

     I've been meaning to send out thank you cards for my bridal shower for a few weeks now.  I wanted cards that were in some way reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, but also that were not a ridiculous amount of effort to make.  These teacup cards are what I came up with.  While I'm using them as thank you cards, these could be great for many other occasions as well.

Materials:

*Floral scrapbooking paper
*Scissors
*Pencil

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the teacup template given below, or draw a teacup template of your own.  Make sure to size the template such that it will fit inside your envelopes.  I apologize for the blurriness of the teacup handle.  I had made a handle that was more vertical and had to rotate it using Paint Shop Pro to get it to fit on the cup correctly, so that's why the handle ended up so blurry.

*Fold your sheet of scrapbooking paper in half lengthwise, right sides facing inward.

*Place your template such that the top of the teacup rests against the fold and trace around the teacup.

*Cut out the teacup shape, making sure to cut through both layers of paper at once.  I was able to cut out the inside of the handle using scissors, but if you have an X-acto knife, you may find it easier to use that.

*Fold your paper back along the crease you created, so that the right sides face outward.

Turning Myself into a Paper Doll

     If you've ever wanted to cartoonize yourself, but felt like you don't have the prerequisite drawing skills, then this may be the post for you.  In the first video in this two-part series, I'll show you how to use a tracing technique to come up with a cartoon version of yourself.  In the second, I'll show you how to color in the image digitally to get a more polished looking image.
     This technique works great for making paper doll versions of yourself or your loved ones, and could be a great gift, especially for the kids in your lives.  While the paper doll angle is the focus of this series, the same techniques will work for making cartoon avatars.
     When I made the first iteration of my paper doll, I had no intention of making a series of paper doll videos.  I was trying to think of a doll related craft to do for my Hey, Day series, and wondered if this would work.  I've used tracing before to create silhouettes, but I thought that I lacked the skills to draw in the facial features.  When the drawing portion worked better than I had expected, I decided to play around with coloring techniques to see if I could get a more polished looking doll, and when that worked okay, I decided to make a second video.  I don't currently have plans for any subsequent videos, but I do love paper crafting, so if you'd like to see more content like this, let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

How to Draw Yourself as a Paper Doll (Part I of the Video Series)

Digitizing Your Paper Self (Part II of the Video Series)

DIY Wedding Invites with the Foil Quill

     As some of you know, Brian and I are getting married this May.  When it came to the invites, we decided to make them ourselves.  To aid us with the invites, we picked up a machine called the Foil Quill, which adds shiny foil to your cards.  In this video tutorial, we'll show you the method we developed for using the Foil Quill to add some shine to our invites.

Here's what the front and back of the invites look like, as well as the RSVP card.

     Check out the video tutorial below to see how we used the Foil Quill to make our invites shine.

     Although I don't go through the design process in this video, if you want to find the clip art I used for the back of the card and the RSVP card, I ordered it from Etsy.  The three packs I used are Alice in Wonderland Clipart, Tea & Macaroons, and Autumn in Wonderland.

Hey, Day Challenge Week VI Round Up

     It's hard to believe we're already through six weeks of the Hey, Day Challenge!  In this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 20th and February 1st.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

Conversation Heart Valentine's Cards

     If you prefer cutesy Valentine's Day crafts to the usual zombie fare, you may want to check out this video, in which I make a zombie-free conversation heart Valentine's Day card.  If you'd prefer the zombie version, though, check out this post.

Paper Fortune Cookies

     This craft is one I've had saved to a Pinterest board for a while, but was afraid would be too complicated to make, so I didn't try it.  The Hey, Day Challenge finally gave me the reason I needed to test it out, and it turned out that it was much easier to make than I originally assumed it would be.  If you like paper crafting, I'd recommend giving it a try.

Future Files Part II: Places to Live

     In this installment of the Future Files, we're thinking about where we'd like to live in the future.  If you know me well, you won't be at all surprised to see where I want to settle down.

     This week in the Hey, Day Challenge we'll be throwing a cutesy Valentine's Day party.  There will be three videos relating to the party, so if Valentine's Day is your jam, be sure to keep your eyes out for those videos.

Hey, Day Challenge Weeks IV and V Round Up

     We've made it through a full month of the Hey, Day Challenge!  In this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 20th and February 1st.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

DIY Stickers (No Sticker Paper Needed)

     In this video, I show you how to make stickers from materials you likely have at home.  This is probably my favorite craft I've made for the series so far.  The stickers were easy to make, and they ended up looking adorable.

Writing Urban Legends with the Urban Legend Generator

     In this video, we take a trip back through time via the Wayback Machine to access the Urban Legends Generator.  I use it to concoct a couple of urban legends to share with you all.  This one was a lot of fun, and if you like urban legends I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.  Maybe you could get together some friends and have an urban legend storytelling contest, seeing who can come up with the best tales using the Urban Legends Generator template  (which I'll include below).  If you come up with urban legends of your own, I'd love to hear them.

Urban Legends Generator:

     To use this template, you have to replace "subject" with a person of your choice (e.g., my cousin's college roommate), "scenario" with a scenario of your choice (e.g., at the science museum), "action" with an action (e.g., sampled one of the demonstration vials), and "consequence" with a consequence (e.g., grew fangs and developed a thirst that could only be quenched by human blood).  Also, I copied the template verbatim, which included she/her pronouns, but you could easily switch them with he/him, they/them, etc. if your subject has different pronouns.  Here's the template:

     I know this may be hard to believe, but it's completely true. I know for sure that it happened to subject. It happened while she was scenario. Apparently, she action. Before she even knew what happened, she consequence!  Think about that next time you're action.
     As with any other information that you receive from questionable sources such as this, it is wise to believe everything that you have read here without questioning it or attempting to verify it in any way. Make sure to pass the story along to everyone you know, too. Imagine how you'd feel if you opened up tomorrow's newspaper and found out that someone you know action.

     These two videos are my favorites of the January videos, and I hope you enjoy them.  February will bring us a fair number of Valentine's crafts, and unlike here on my blog, they will all be nice, normal Valentine's crafts.  So if you prefer cutesy to the zombie Valentine's projects I usually post, you'll want to keep an eye on my channel for those videos.

Room 217 Passkey

     As some of you may know if you've been following my blog for a while, my favorite movie is Stephen King's The Shining.  No, not the Stanley Kubrick film.  The made-for-TV miniseries that basically no one likes except for the Master of Horror himself and me.  Each year for Halloween, I decorate the bathroom as room 217 (see, e.g., Halloween 2018) and last year I decided to add the stolen passkey into the mix.  I tried to design mine to be reasonably close to the one featured in the miniseries adaptation of The Shining.  However, if you like Kubrick's adaptation better, you could easily mimic the passkey from his film instead.

The stolen passkey on the sink in "room 217."

Materials:

*Skeleton key

*Cream colored cardstock

*Color printer or brown marker (I used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut the "2" from the cream colored cardstock and added brown cardstock in behind, but printing or drawing on the "2" would be faster and easier).

*Hole punch

*Key ring

Directions:

*Print the number 2 onto a sheet of cream colored cardstock.  (If you're drawing on the number with a marker, you can wait to add the "2" until after you've cut out the diamond shape.)

*Cut out a rounded diamond shape with the "2" at its center, using the template below.

*Punch a hole in the top of the passkey and attach the skeleton key to the passkey using a key ring.

Radiation Hazard Printable Sign

     If you've looked at my party pics from my recent Halloween parties (see Halloween 2017 and Halloween 2018), you may have noticed my radiation hazard sign on my fridge.  I actually made mine using my Silhouette CAMEO, but since Blogger doesn't make it easy to add SVG files to posts and since I imagine most of my readers don't have die cutting machines at home, I've turned it into a printable sign.  I made it in Paint, so it is a little pixelated if you print it at a large size.  However, if you have a better photo editing program which allows you to smooth the edges, that will probably fix the issue.  This sign could be a great addition to a Halloween zombie or science lab setup.

Materials:

*White cardstock
*Color printer
*Laminator (optional)

Directions:

*Print the sign out onto a sheet of white cardstock.
*Laminate if you wish.

Book Pendant Necklace

     Show your love of books with these adorable book pendant necklaces.

Materials:

*Mini book (see this tutorial on one technique for making mini books)
*Jump ring
*Jewelry chain
*Jewelry clasp
*Pliers
*Sewing needle

Directions:

*Create or procure your mini book (see this tutorial for one technique for making mini books).

*Carefully poke a hole in the spine of the book toward the top of the spine.

*Open a jump ring and slide it through the hole you have created.

*Add the book pendant to the jewelry chain and close the jump ring around the chain.

*Add clasps to the ends of the jewelry chain.

Dyed Doilies

     Dyed doilies add a fun pop of color to any tea party.  While this method is intended for coffee filter doilies, cloth doilies can be dyed in a similar fashion.

Materials:

*Water
*Food coloring
*Doilies
*Plastic container large enough to hold a doily
*Paper towels

Directions:

*Fill the container halfway with water.

*Add a few drops of food coloring.

*Dunk a doily in the water for a few seconds.

*Carefully remove the doily and lay it out to dry on a paper towel.

*To minimize wrinkling, you can press doilies under a heavy book if you'd like.

Coffee Filter Doilies

     Doilies can make for lovely tea party decorations, but they can be pricey.  Crocheting is another option, but that can be time consuming and is less than ideal if your tea party guests are messy eaters.  Coffee filter doilies make for pretty place settings and they're relatively fast to make, so if they are destroyed during the course of the event, it's less of a big deal.  If you want your doilies to be a color other than white, next week we'll talk about dyeing them, so stay tuned.

Materials:

*Coffee filters
*Pencil
*Scissors

Directions:

*Fold your coffee filters into eighths or sixteenths.

*Sketch out a pattern for your doily, if you would like.

*Cut along the pattern, or try free form shapes.  It's basically the same process as making paper snowflakes, but with perhaps different designs.

Giant Paper Roses

     What could be more fitting for a Wonderland tea party than giant paper roses?  I made these black ones for my Gothic Alice look, but red or white (or red and white) would work well if you're going for a classic Wonderland look.  This craft was inspired by this post from Martha Stewart's website.

Me as Gothic Alice with one of the giant roses in the background.

Materials:

*Long wooden dowel, at least 1/4" thick
*Green paint
*Green duct tape
*Poster paper in the color or colors of your choice (that's what I used, although crepe paper or other papers may be better suited for this project)
*Pencil

Directions:

*Paint the dowel green.  Let dry.

*Print out the templates given below.

*Trace and cut out 5 of the teardrop shaped petals and 15 of the heart shaped petals.

*Curl one of the teardrop shaped petals and tape it onto the dowel.

*Curl a second teardrop shaped petals and tape it to the dowel as well.

*Curl and tape the remaining teardrop shaped petals.

*Curl and tape the heart shaped petals.  For those petals, you'll also want to curl the top edge down a bit to give it a more petal-like appearance.

Homemade Holiday Photo Cards

     Holiday card printing services can be expensive, particularly if you have a long list of people to send cards to.  Printing cards from home can be a cheaper alternative.  Here's how to create nice looking holiday cards from home.

Materials:

*Computer with photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop
*Digital photos for your card
*Holiday-themed scrapbooking paper (optional)
*Color printer
*Matte photo paper in the dimensions that you would like your cards to be
*Glitter or metallic gel pens (optional)
*Glitter cardstock (optional)

Directions:

*Design your card in your photo editing program.  Brian constructed our card, so I can't adequately explain the process, but this tutorial shows you how to create photo cards in Photoshop.

*Insert matte photo paper into the printer and print your card.  You can use cardstock if you're in a pinch, but the pictures won't be as crisp and the colors may be a bit muted.  Here is a comparison:

*Glitter and shiny embossing are two features that can really make holiday cards stand out.  Add some shimmer to your cards by tracing the text with glitter gel pens.

*Create a frame for your photos from glitter cardstock to give your cards some extra sparkle.