Handmade Christmas cards or Zazzle Christmas Cards?

A lot changed from those early days when I wrote lots of Christmas Greeting Cards. I get fewer Christmas cards in my mailbox each year. I still buy cards to send but I also send e-cards, SMS, and emails. As I usually don't have much free time in December I don't do handmade cards. But I think making Christmas Greeting cards is a good option. It's another way of celebrating the season. You can create cards to send to your family and friends. And if you have kids this activity will keep your children entertained around the table for a couple of hours, it's a nice project for a Saturday rainy or cold winter afternoon!

But buying Christmas Greeting cards is always an option so I'll present you with some beautiful Christmas Greeting cards specially handpicked by me from Zazzle. (Just scroll down to see it or read some more about making handmade Christmas cards !)

Handmade Christmas cards at home

Christmas Greeting cards you buy on the stores can be elaborate and pretty. They can get pretty expensive and they will never beat any card made by you. A revival of interest in paper crafts such as scrapbooking made homemade cards again very appreciated. Shops sell modern special tools for stamping, punching, and cutting. In Portugal this isn't a trend as in America or France. Today there are all sorts of materials available, tools, even machines to help you with the task. You can do it simply or you can create a piece of art. Some of the things you'll need:

Adhesives - these are essential, including vellum tape, removable adhesive, glue dots, tabs, photo squares, permanent adhesive, and more including adhesive removers.

Cardstock - pick cardstock that's acid-free and lignin-free. There are lots of colors to choose.

Sheets of paper - there's a world of paper patterns and designs out there

Cut outs - get pre-printed sheets and then cut out or pop out the designs or letters. It makes it a lot easier.

Die cutting machines - Cricut, Sizzix Big Shot, Wishblade, Silhouette are the most popular ones. Pick a manual die cutter, or an electric machine, the dies to go in them, and let's go!

Decoration - there are tons of embellishments you can use, brads, eyelets, ribbons, stickers, buttons...

Decorative punches - use the punched-out images to decorate.

Rubber stamps and ink pads - I love stamping products! You can also create your own.

Other - glitter

Digital Greeting Cards - These are created in your personal computer

The space to store materials that traditional scrapbooking or manual card making or any art or hobby that requires paper can be a problem. It can be one of the reasons for the success of digital scrapbooking and card making. For example, I have a problem with cardstock storage. I buy large sheets and I want it to say dry, without any stains or dust and sometimes it's difficult to find an ideal place to store it. Digital scrapbooking become so popular that you can easily find free digital supplies on the internet like layouts and nice decorative elements. Those who create paper scrapbooks also say that traditional books are not easy to share. Finally, if you want to copy and share your scrapbook work you must consider digital scrapbooking. It's great fun and so easy!

Here's some of my favorite Zazzle Christmas Greeting Cards!