Christmas Card Activity

What better way to get your little ones in the Christmas spirit at this time of year, than with some wonderful craft activities. Making Christmas cards is a great affordable activity that little ones will love and can let them express their creativity. Making cards couldn’t be easier and this guide and printout attached makes it a walk in the park.

Preparation

Before you start you will need a few essentials:

·         A4 Card or thick paper

·         Scissors (safety scissors – if the kids are cutting)

·         Glue (a glue stick is best – less messy!)

·         A computer attached to a printer

·         Something to colour in with: pens, pencils, paints or crayons etc.

Folding the Card

Take your piece of A4 white or coloured card or and fold it across the centre as shown below. The card should now be able to stand on its own ether as a standard card or a portrait one. Once folded you should have the basic template for creating any kind of greetings card.

 Decorate the card

Now that you have your card shape, it’s time to start decorating  it to look really Christmassy. This is where the fun really begains and your childrens imagination shines. A great idea when making the perfect Christmas scene is to get a background. This time of year you can find the perfect background almost anywhere by cutting out magazine pictures or even finding a great winter scene online.  This guide has a wonderful neutral background of the sun setting over snowy hills and is perfectly sized to cover the front of  landscape style card.

Once you have found the perfect background get your children to cut it out with some safety scissors and don’t worry if they’re not neat as it is all part of the home made charm. If they are a little young to handle scissors of any kind you might have to do this part. Once you have the background cut out so it leaves a bit of a border of the original card around the outside, stick it on preferably with a glue stick to avoid the potentially devastating amounts of mess other glue can create.

Now that you have the background it’s time to stand adding decorations to create the perfect Christmas scene.  Christmas images can be found all over the place from excess wrapping paper to newspaper cuttings. Look around and get a big selection for your children to choose from. This guide has some great printouts which even come uncoloured for your children to have extra fun

This guide includes some great printouts which come both coloured and uncoloured for your children to have extra fun colouring them in just how they want. This not only prolongs the activity but lets them express their creativity as there is nothing wrong with a red penguin. The images with this guide have an easy to follow cut out line or can be cut exactly if more skilled hands are handling them.  Once you have all your decorations simply cut them out and stick them on where you want.

Write the card

Now that you have your card decorated there is only one thing you need to do write the thing. Writing your own personalised messages in the card is much more special than shop bought clichés. One great idea if your children are just starting to write is to write it out yourself in a thin pencil and get them to trace over it with a thick pen. Not only does this make the children feel a larger part of the experience but it also helps with their hand writing. If they are really little why not get them to dip their hand in paint and sign it with a cute hand print.

This activity guide was designed on behalf of Vistaprint the online gift retailer that supply some wonderful products including Photo Christmas Cards

Printouts