I’m going to share all the steps you need to make your Christmas Cards in the most easiest possible way so you can spend more time coloring with your Copic Markers!!
Before we get started download my FREE Christmas Copic Marker Color Combos to help you decide on this year’s Christmas Card Color Scheme!
Spend more time creating and coloring and less time planning your Christmas Cards!
The closer it comes to the Holidays, do you find yourself on Pinterest and Google searching for ideas on how to make your own Christmas Cards? After all that searching you are still stumped on the design, what stamps and color combo to use.
Yes — oh me, too!!!
You are not alone. Don’t worry, though, this post is going to be extremely helpful to you!
I’m going to walk you through the most organized Christmas Card Making process that won’t get you bored and burnt out. Plus you will be able to practice your Copic skills while coloring lots of different images!
You know how busy the Holiday season is and I think it starts at the end of September, honestly. We start thinking of all the Holiday Crafts we want to make and then get side-tracked.. and pretty soon life gets in the way of our crafting time.
BAM, BAM, BAM.. just like that- Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!
You end up sending a Happy Thanks-Christmas New Year Card!
Well, not this year missy! Let’s get started making our Christmas Cards!
Deciding on images to use for your Christmas Cards.
If you are like me and have so many stamps you want to use on your Handmade Christmas cards and you just can’t decide that’s quite alright! Make a pile of all of your stamps and set them aside.
If you are buying a new stamp or set(s) make a list and set that aside.
Die Cutting images VS a Square image
I’ll be using coordinating dies to cut out my images. It is a little more time consuming as you will have to run the die through the die machine repeatedly since only one die of the stamp comes in the set. I’ll share an effective way to do this process once we get there.
The process of the die cutting is quicker for me than leaving the image on a square or rectangle piece of cardstock — I’ll be way too tempted to do something to the background!
But– if you do not have the dies or the time for die cutting you can always cut your cardstock to fit your image – for example a 3 x 3 3/4 rectangle ( with your image in the center).
When you are creating a mass production of cards and I think 10+ cards of the same colors, design and the same purpose, qualify as a mass production- you can tend to get bored creating and coloring the same image over and over.
If you have 10 – 20 images you can color you are going to be more willing to sit and color different images.
You can also add accessory images that you can add to your main image:
- Holly
- Candy Canes
- Poinsettia
- Santa Hats
- Presents
Using Copic Markers to Color your Christmas Images.
Next, you need to figure out how many cards you’re going to make. If you are going to make 50 Christmas Cards you can make 5 of the cards all with the same image using 10 different images!
Whether you are new to Copic Markers or not this is a great opportunity to practice using your Copics! If you have never used Copics and curious about using them, check out my post What makes Copics so special!
You’ll at least want to color the same image 3 times so you :
- 1. Get the Copic Marker color combo order down to a T.
- 2. Practice blending that Copic Marker Color Combo.
- 3. Gives you the opportunity to try different light sources.
- 4. Try different Copic techniques – Maybe this bear will have texture and this one will be smooth.
- 5. By coloring at least 3 images you’re more likely to remember the combo and the order you’re coloring in.
- 6. It’s all good practice ( and if one doesn’t come out good send that card to someone you’re not fond of! LOL) J/K!
Deciding on a Color Scheme for your Christmas Cards
Take a look at the stamps you’ve decided on. Are they simple? Do you need a lot of different colors – skin, hair, clothes, fur, snowman.. you’ll need to make sure you have orange for the carrot nose!
You can either take into consideration all the colors you need or just the main colors and don’t include hair, skin, fur, carrot nose!
Are you using a patterned paper with lots of designs? Chances are, if you are — you’ve got your color combo!
Once you choose your color palette, you’ll want to see which ones match your Copic Markers and choose the coordinating colors (3-4 shades) so you have a coordinating light to dark of that color within its color family.
10 Copic Marker Color Combos for Christmas! Download yours today!
Gathering Supplies to make your own Christmas Cards
You are going to want to gather all of your supplies for your Handmade Christmas Cards first and set everything in piles.
Afterall, when you’re baking cookies you don’t start adding ingredients in a bowl without making sure you have everything right there and at your fingertips.
Cause what happens if you find out you don’t have any chocolate chips — you’ll have to put it all away and run to the store — then get it all out again.
Which is just a waste of time and we want to be as organized and productive as possible!
You don’t have to use all of the supplies listed — like the other embellishments, patterned paper and distress inks. Use what you need depending on the style you want to make your own Christmas Cards.
Supplies
Christmas Card Assembling
We are just rolling right along through the process! I know it seems like there’s a lot left to do — but believe it or not we are finished with the hardest part!
Once you start this next process, being organized and seeing your progress with all of your Handmade Christmas Cards- you are going to feel motivated to keep going and be productive!
You can follow the next steps over the course of a few days or weeks.
Step by Step Tutorial • Day 1: Complete Steps 1-5
1. Card Layout
You want to get the most of a sheet of cardstock so making 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 cards is ideal since you can get 2 cards from an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock. Normally, I usually make all of my card bases white since I can find the 110 lb white cardstock in bulk. I prefer my cards having a top fold – sits better and is easier to photograph.- Horizontal cards – Score your 8 1/2 x 11 first! Score at the 4 1/4 inch mark.
- Vertical cards – Score your 8 1/2 x 11 first! Score at the 5 1/2 inch mark.
2. Cut and Score
Take your paper cutter and cut the card bases.- Horizontal cards – Take your scored 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock and cut at the 5 1/2 and stack in a pile.
- Vertical cards – Take your scored 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock and cut at 4 1/4 and stack in a pile.
3. Other Paper
Card layout with patterned paper and or cardstock. Here’s a few example sizes.- Large Rectangle – 4 x 5 1/4 patterned paper or cardstock. Matting at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8.
- Small Rectangle – 3 x 4 patterned paper or cardstock. Matting at 3 1/8 x 4 1/8.
- Large Strip – 5 1/2 (or 4 1/4) x 3 1/2 patterned paper or cardstock Matting at 5 1/2 (or 4 1/4) x 3 5/8.
- Small Strip – 5 1/2 ( 4 1/4) x 1 1/2 patterned paper or cardstock. Matting at 5 1/2 (or 4 1/4) x 1 5/8
Step by Step Tutorial • Day 2: Complete Step 6
4. Stamping your images!
- Cut your Copic Xpress it Blending cardstock into 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 because I’m using the smaller Misti.
- Take all of the different images and place them on the paper ready to stamp. Make sure you leave gaps to fit the dies in between.
- Ink up the images with Memento ink and stamp away.
- Stamp as many sheets you need of those images and repeat with more or different stamps if needed.
5. Stamping your sentiments!
- Decide on a sentiment (or a few).
- Take a strip of white cardstock 11 x 3 or 4 depending on the length of your sentiment.
- Place your sentiment on a block and stamp in Black memento Ink. I stamp a row – right under one another. Leaving a small space to cut.
- Don’t rock the block on the ink pad or on the paper!
- Don’t press down too hard or it will stamp blurry and you won’t be able to read it.
- Mix and match sentiments for a unique saying.
6. Coloring
Coloring your images might take a little longer than the rest of the assembling process. The great thing about that is you can still finish the cards and add the images last. So do this step throughout the rest of the process. Coloring Tips:- Color all parts that are the same color at the same time if you want to move quicker.
-
- Shade all snowmen first.
- Color hats black.
- Then, color all noses.
- Color all blue strips on scarves.
- Then color all pink strips on scarves. etc.
Have you decided on a Christmas Color Pattern for your Christmas Cards?Let me help you…. Download my FREE Christmas Copic Marker Color Recipes!
Step by Step Tutorial • Day 3: Complete Step 7 - 11
7. Glue in Sections!
Start adhering in sections. So adhere your mattings to the patterned paper or cardstock and set aside.
Do not start attaching them to your card base. This will make the process much quicker!
Just set them aside until the glue dries and then stack them beside your scored and cut stack of card bases.
TIP: If you use liquid adhesive ( I use Tombow Mono- Adhesive) you will be able to position the cardstock or patterned paper more evenly on the matting. Since you have a few seconds to adjust the paper to center it.
NOTE: Make sure the glue is dry before you stack them in their piles.
Once they are all glued together start thinking about embellishments and added details before moving on to step 7. Ribbon, twine, distress ink etc.
8. Adding details to your Christmas Card.
- Ribbon or twine – You can wrap the ribbon or twine around your strip and tie a knot in the front (or the back for a cleaner look) You can add a separate bow in the front later on, too.
- Distress Oxide Ink – You can distress oxide inks to your card base (center or edges) If you are not using patterned paper you can add a little to the center of the matted cardstock.
- Dimension – I like to add foam adhesive squares to some of the layers on my cards for added dimension. Especially because they are a little simpler. So for the matted strip or the matted rectangle piece place some foam square or strips on the back – but don’t remove the adhesive just yet ( to stick to the card).
Set them all in a pile and get ready to move on to step 8.
9. Die Cutting
YAY – we are almost finished!
If you are not done coloring your images you can come back to this step later.
When you’re finished coloring get all of your coordinating dies out and using washi tape place the dies over the image and tape it down – keeping the die in place.
Since we used all the different stamps on our sheet of Copic Xpress we will be able to cut out all the images (or most) from the sheet with one crank of the die cutting machine.
Repeat for all images and sheets.
If you are not die cutting your images you might want to add another layer (matting- same color as the other matting) to the back of your image- also 1/8th of an inch. Adhere to the matting liquid adhesive.
Once your images or matted images are all cut out add foam squares or strips to the backs of your images.
Step by Step Tutorial • Day 4: Complete Step 12
10. Create Piles
Gather all of your card elements and set them in piles in the order:- Card Bases
- Matted Cardstock or Patterned Paper (already with foam adhesive)
- Create piles of all the images that are the same
- Make piles of sentiments that are different.
- Bows (ribbon or twine)
- Any other elements – buttons, sequins, gems etc
11. Card Layout Design
Once you decide on your layouts. You can start putting them all together!
If you are sitting and finishing your cards in one seating you can adhere everything in one swoop.
Card base > Matted Cardstock with ribbon or twine > Image > Bow or other elements and then Sentiment.
If you are still breaking up this process, adhere all Matted Cardstock with ribbon or twine on all the card bases then do all the images etc.
12. Inside & Send
As a card-maker the inside of our cards always seem to get neglected.
If you don’t have any larger sentiments to add a “Merry Christmas” You can always print one and then add matting to it!
A benefit of printing is you can add your name, family’s name etc.
Fancy it up– just a lil’ bit by adding an accessory stamp in some light ink Memento or Distress oxide. You can do this on the inside of the card, in the back of the card (along with your initials) and also on the envelope!
Mail out your Christmas Cards!
Handmade Christmas Cards are the best!
You know that week before Christmas when you’re trying to decide on side dishes for the big day, finish Christmas Shopping, wrapping presents, baking and well… you know!
How many times have you sat on the couch the night before Christmas, staring at the Christmas tree and said to yourself — It’s finished! I did it! You know how that proud feeling of accomplishment and excitement just fills your heart.
That is the exact feeling you’ll get when you mail out your last Christmas card.
Your friends and family will think you are an absolute super hero for making your own Christmas Cards.
All this … before the Holiday’s even start!
Don't forget to download your Christmas Copic Color Combos
10 Copic Marker Color Combos for Christmas! Download yours today!
Pin the image below so you can always find your way back to this page!
Thank you Mindy!
Thank you Mindy, your step by step approach has enlightened my thinking. I have such trouble finishing the cards I never know what patterned paper to use, so my cards look very plain with too much white space, but cutting out ( or die cutting) the image helps, and the assembly line speeds up the process.
Wish me luck – so far this year finished 160 and now just 4 weeks to finish another 160 for the local nursing homes. (very little family so nursing homes are my recipients)
I love making cards and feel everyone needs a little cheer.