Glamorous and sustainable Christmas greeting cards, just follow a few small suggestions.
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Have you read all our tips for a 2011 Christmas in the name of savings and sustainability? Then you will already know what to do with tree, gifts, dinner, holidays e decorations. And the greeting cards? They too can be glamorous and sustainable, just follow a few small tips.
You will need: scissors, natural glue, recycled paper or that in any case you would have thrown away and, to decorate everything, buttons, woolen threads, fabric, wrapping paper from past years, leaves and seeds.
Password simplicity
Handmade postcards take time, effort and a few good ideas. So give vent to your imagination but, beware of things that are too complicated. In the case of excessively complex subjects or overly ambitious artistic projects, in fact, you risk transforming a pleasant Christmas pastime into a real job.
So first, go for snow-white wallpapers. A nice white cardboard that's what it takes. Buy some recycled paper oFSC certified in compliance with the forests, the green lungs of our planet.
Shape and size will be at your discretion but, if you are undecided, we can give you a little advice: better square than rectangular, no one knows why, but they yield more.
For the type of image to apply, prefer linear shapes. Crowns, stars, balls and trees will be much easier to make or cut out than a nice Santa Claus with a lot of reindeer and sleigh in tow, don't you think? In this case there are two alternatives: you can decide to take the Gift card and cut out from there the shapes that you have decided to apply on your greeting card or, you can arm yourself with colors or charcoal and draw them yourself. If in the first case the effect will recall the style of the 50s, in the second you will get closer to the comic. Among the colors that perform best, purple, ultramarine blue and gold.
Seeds, leaves, wool and buttons they can be a good way to embellish your card. You can add them at the end of the job with a little glue. Better if on the outside so as to facilitate closing.
Love the photography and do you have a nice set of images to use? So how about personalizing your cards with the photos you took. Highly effective, they will require nothing more than a little glue and can make a nice Christmas present.
And to feed the curiosity of friends and relatives, here's the trick for you: take the Gift card, cut out a long strip where you will write your greeting message and roll it up, closing it with threads of different colors to distinguish the recipient. It will be a curious and original way to send greetings.
The paper? You do it!
Recover of the recycled paper and scraps of paper that you would otherwise throw away. Cut everything into small pieces and leave to soak for a few hours. After the time necessary to soften it, remove the excess water, put everything in a blender and blend well. For some success, calculate one part of paper with four parts of water.
If you want to add some color to the whitish mush you have obtained, you can add some flowers, some grass or some leaves. Roll out everything on a wooden plank and with a rolling pin roll out until you have a sheet of paper pulp. If you want to increase the strength of the paper, add corn starch.
When the sheets are dry, go to ironing. Put a towel on the sheet and away with the iron. The ticket is ready.
Work while optimizing
Too many friends and family together? Will there be fifty tickets to be made by hand? Don't give in to the temptation to buy them! It will be enough to work optimizing times and operations. Cut out everything in the first step and move on to the decorations.
Have you selected one or more images to reproduce? Then prepare some shapes that you can use several times as if they were molds (this explains why the simple subjects to make). You can change the colors by reusing the same image several times. Prepare seeds, leaves and everything that comes to mind, such as woolen threads, buttons, etc. on the work surface and finish your card by decorating it.
Serena Bianchi
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