DIY Holiday Cards
Tara Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 9:13AM For holiday cards this year I decided to make them myself so as to practice making cards. Since I have never made a card and we decided to take on the stationery for our wedding, it only made sense to use the holidays as a trial run! But we still kept it simple as neither of us work in a design related career.
We used MS Publisher to do the layout of the clipart tree, add in our wording, and add a background. We modified the page layout so that it would print to the appropriate size with 4 on each full page of paper. Used our handy rotary trimmer to cut to size. And then all we had to do was attach to the backing.
Before doing any assembling, I moved to the next computer part of the project- the wrap-around labels from Martha Stewart. The directions and template for these on the website are really easy to use.
The only modification I did was I decided to leave the black line as border instead of trimming it off. As you will see in the image, this would be fine for a bigger envelope but for mine this caused the flap to go over the label a little bit. I also used the same color of paper as my envelope (part of why I decided to keep the line as a border). Next time I do these I will use a different color paper and will use one of these shaped paper punches in the corner to add a little 'flair.'
Once those were printed it was time to do the assembly. For adhesive I was hesitant to use the scrapbook adhesive that I used for the envelope liners, I don't want the labels to fall off in the mail! So I tried the spray adhesive by 3M. This was really messy and I didn't want them to look like a 5 year old put them together so that didn't last long. I found the spray to be really challenging as it is a little difficult to control and it gets on your fingers... which then transfers to the envelopes or the front of the label. So I broke down and got a sticker maker. It is so wonderfully easy to use! I was able to use it for the both the labels and attaching the card to the backing. I will definitely be using the sticker maker for wedding projects!
And viola! 
They aren't incredibly fancy but it was fun. And it was great to do a project like this that doesn't have so much pressure associated with it to iron out some of those little details.
Front of envelopes with wrap-around label:
Back of wrap-around label (see how I probably should have cut the line off like they suggest!):
holidays in DIY, Living Well
Reader Comments (4)
hi, i don't know you ... but i found your blog when googling our wedding venue! i love all your ideas, and read through everything you wrote in december and november. AND get this, since my fiance and i were engaged in sonoma (plus i'm from california) i also wanted to get married in wine country, yet eventually we too thought that planning from afar would be a hassle. therefore we decided we wanted our friends and family to experience the chicago we know, love, and call home. also, i contacted heatherjeany about her invitations a few months ago (did you see it daily candy?) and she was already booked up through our wedding (which is march). i love her gocco prints! i google gocco thinking i might diy (dim?), but i think i am going to go with wedding paper divas for the invites. i REALLY need to get on that!!!!! good luck with your planning!
these look amazing! you did such a good job. and you won't regret your xyron at all, i use mine all the time!
thanks elizabeth! i am already thinking up projects where i can use it!
thanks devon! i was happy with my stds from wedding paper divas and they are really easy to work with. good luck with your planning! :)
Your cards look great! Congrats on making your holiday cards.