DIY CHRISTMAS : THREE CRAFT IDEAS FOR YOUR FESTIVE AND COLOURFUL GREETING CARDS

What could be more magical during the festive period than giving your loved ones a personalised greeting card to wish them all the best for the holiday season and New Year? This year, why not try a special festive craft activity, alone or with your children?

Make the most of the end-of-year celebrations to make your own Christmas and New Year's greeting cards, whether traditional or with a cosmic dimension. Let yourself be inspired by the magic of the festive season : the first snowflakes, the gifts under the Christmas tree and decorations flooding the house. Celebrate this special family time and follow our lead to create unique greeting cards with Swiss Made supplies. This year, make holiday season rhyme with creation!

Would you like to surprise your loved ones this holiday season? A watercolour 3D landscape or a starry night, here are three ideas for your personalised and unique greeting card.
 

This holiday season, art lovers will be delighted with a hand-crafted watercolour greeting card. This DIY watercolour card is perfect for highlighting the warm tones of the festive period, all with a touch of poetry.

Start by drawing the outlines of your Christmas patterns with a graphite pencil on a piece of card or cardstock. Fir trees, stars, holly, reindeer, snowflakes, Santa Claus: sketch these with light strokes before using your watercolour paints.

Once you've finished the outlines, get your SUPRACOLOR™ Aquarelle water-soluble colour pencils, your NEOCOLOR II™ Aquarelle water-soluble wax pastels, and watercolour paintbrushes or water brush pen and start adding colour to your design.

To personalise your card further, you can add "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" with a fountain pen or a Fibralo™ felt-tip pen and follow our calligraphy tips.

This holiday season, surprise your loved ones with a 3D greeting card! Create a 3D winter landscape with festive details and write your message on the back of this pop-up card. This craft activity can also be done with your children for some family fun!

For this craft activity you will need an A4 sheet of thick paper or cardstock cut in four to obtain four A6 postcard-sized pieces. In the foreground of the first piece, use a graphite pencil to draw snowmen, fir trees or gifts, taking care to draw only up to the first third of the paper, and then cut it out. Continue by drawing on the second piece of paper (this time your patterns and outlines should reach two-thirds of the available space, so that they can be seen behind the foreground). Finally draw the background, making sure you fill the page up to the top, and cut out these outlines.

Cut out 4 strips of paper from the fourth and final piece of paper and fold them in such a way that you get little paper cubes. Colour these with permanent colour pencils such as the PABLO™ or LUMINANCE 6901™ pencils. Red, green or pale blue: select your colours in such a way that these elements blend into the landscape.

To finish, glue the paper strips between the elements of the landscape to create layers and depth. Your 3D greeting card is complete! You'll also be able to use it as a festive decoration.

Collages are an effective way of making unique greeting cards and letting your inspiration run free. From a simple base you can customise your card however you wish: layer graphic designs to create texture, and draw or paint seasonal motifs.

For this craft activity, discover the metallic effects of the pencils and pastels from our Cosmic Blue collection, a Special Edition by Caran d'Ache for the festive season, and let yourself be taken on a cosmic voyage.

Create your greeting card following our step-by-step guide and wish your loved ones a very Cosmic Christmas.

Get set for a starry sky and sparkling planets!

🎨 What you'll need:

● Cosmic Blue mixed media metallic colour set

● Sheet of A4 paper (Mixed media paper)

● HB graphite pencil

● A wide acrylic paintbrush

● Acrylic paint in Prussian blue and white

● Watercolor palette (smooth side)

● Two Luminance pencils (black and white)

● Stick glue or craft glue

1. Fold the A4 sheet of paper in half to create the greeting card and paint the inside blue. Let the paint dry before starting step 2.

2. Add some stars by diluting white paint until it becomes very liquid. Flick the bristles of the brush to spray some of the paint on to the paper for a starry effect. Leave to dry.

4. Using your imagination or reference images, add colours to your planets with the Neocolor™ I metallic pencils and pastels from the Cosmic Blue collection.

5. Add contrast with a black pencil. Create craters and depth by leaving some white spaces. With the white pencil, blend the colours together and smooth out the colours for a misty, hazy effect.

6. Cut out the planets with a pair of scissors.

7. Place your planets on the cosmic sky before sticking them to the greeting card.

8. As a finishing touch add a message on small pieces of paper: "Merry Cosmic Christmas", "I love you to the moon and back", "Cuz you're a sky full of stars"...

All that's left to do is write out a festive message inside your greeting card and send it to your loved one or put it under the Christmas tree.

📸 Don't forget to share your greeting card on social media using our hashtag #Carandache and tagging @carandache. A very merry creative holiday season to all!

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