Home made Christmas Cards

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  Store-bought Christmas cards are rich, elegant and expensive. They also consume a huge amount of natural resources for a throw-away item.
  
  Homemade cards may not always be as professional, but they are more personal and just as appreciated.
  
  Make a trip to your local Hobby Craft stores for some easy but simple ideas. Don't be tempted to buy too much as with a bit of creativity and some magpie like hoarding you can make beautiful cards out of recycled materials.
• Last years' calendar and christmas cards are a good place to start.
• Cut out sections of pictures and 'glue-stick' them to a fold-over piece of paper.
• Size the paper to fit your envelopes, or have the card and message on one side and fold over to put the address on the other side.
• Staple at the bottom and no envelope is needed.

Making your own cards is easy if you have the material to work with. Try to get in the habit of saving pieces of heavy paper (good one side) to use as the backing for your glued-on pictures. "Card stock" is the ideal weight, and even small pieces are worth saving. When you have finished your master pieces write “Happy Christmas to the planet” on the back!

After the holidays, you can send home made thank you notes out of Christmas cards others have sent you- it's an easy and fun way for kids to acknowledge gift-givers