Homemade cards and paper

 We made our own Christmas cards this year.  I was amazed at how easy and fun it was,and I didn't have to buy anything - just used what we had in the craft drawer. I am quite pleased with the results too.  I have a friend who makes her own cards and she has turned her spare room into a card making room - filled with all sorts of equipment and gadgetry.  Her cards are beautiful, but so professional looking that you would never know they were handmade.  I don't think anyone will be fooled by ours, but that is really the point of the excercise. Handmade with love.

Mind you, James loved my friend's card to us so much he has hidden it under his pillow. 

 

We did some more leaf print paper.  I abandoned the potato printing as I couldn't manage to carve a shape that was recogniseable.  This was easy though.  I had collected some leaves from the hydrangeas and flowering cherry a couple of weeks ago and pressed them in a big book for a few days to flatten them and dry them out a wee bit.  We used a ready mixed bronze metallic craft paint from horrible Tesco which we squirted into a shallow dish, coated the leaves and then pressed them onto the paper.  The back of the leaf gave the best print, and I had to thin the paint down a tiny bit.  It also helped to put extra paint on the ribs of the leaf with a brush to give them more prominence.  Just messing around with paints really - try things out on a scrap bit paper first to get the effect you like. When you are done, the leaves have a lovely gilded effect and can be dried and used as other decorations.  We glued some on to card and made gift tags.  The paper has gone down really well with folk.  I have given a couple of presents already and both times more has been said about the paper than the gift inside!