Free Christmas Crafts

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Homemade DIY Stamped Snowman Greeting Cards

This is a nice introduction to stamping your own greeting cards, and the creative decorating possibilities that arise when making homemade cards. We chose a snowman theme but, of course, you could use the same stamping and watercolor techniques with other Christmas motifs as well.

Copyright © 1999-2008 Susan Spatone All rights reserved.
Published with permission from CraftAtHome.com

Craft Supplies:

Card Stock or Purchased blank greeting cards.

Black dye stamp pad [pads purchased at office supply stores will work perfectly and they're usually a little less expensive too!]

Rubber stamps of choice

Water colour paints [markers, pencils, crayons or anything similar will work too]

Rubber stamp positioner [optional]

Craft Project Instructions:

These cards are the perfect project for a beginning stamper. They're very easy to make ... almost as easy as colouring pages in a colouring book ... almost!

If you have never stamped before, you may want to practice a little on regular paper first. You'll get the feel of stamping perfect images very quickly. It's important not to rock the stamp when you make the impression, but only press firmly. That's the first mistake you may make - and the second is, thinking that it's way too difficult to make these cards.

Apply ink to your stamp and using a rubber stamp positioner, align where you want your stamp to go. Stamp the image, allow the ink to dry and then colour. That really is all there is to it!

I used water colour paints to colour mine, but you can use markers, pens, etc. You don't need to purchase an expensive set of water colour paints, you can use an old set of water colours that the kids have or buy yourself a brand new set at most local dollar stores.

If you haven't used water colour paints before, practice first. I like using a lot of water in my colour and to add the shading effects, I simply paint over an already painted area with the same colour. Each layer of water paint will add a deeper tone. This will take a little practice first though.

You can see by the photos of my cards that I haven't coloured the entire image, but just a few sections. Use these cards as a guide for making your own and don't be afraid to experiment with a few inexpensive rubber stamps. It's so much nicer to give hand made cards than purchased cards and you'll save a bunch of money too!