Too busy to spend a lot of time on Christmas crafts with your family? Well, you’re in luck, because the Internet is full of free images that can be used to create quick and easy holiday craft projects. For example, crafts made from free vintage Christmas cards or free digital Christmas images found online are simple to make, due to the fact that vintage images are both versatile and very effective at conveying a traditional holiday feel. These pictures also usually cost nothing to download and their age puts them outside the range of copyright protection. That’s a terrific bonus, because you don’t have to worry about using other people’s art illegally.
Doing a fast online search for “vintage Christmas” will give you a huge selection of free vintage images from which a lot of craft projects can be made. And, of course, if you don’t like vintage, new Christmas clip art can also be used to produce beautiful projects.
Here are some examples of simple holiday projects virtually anyone can make by using free electronic images:
Holiday Gift Tags
You can actually find free Christmas gift tags available for download from the Internet but you can also make your own. Simply download the the image or images you like and paste them into a table in your word processing program. Make the table two columns by six or eight rows, depending on how tall you want the cards to be. Place your chosen art into every cell (or every other cell if you want to fold them), leaving room to write people’s names. Then, print the page onto card stock, cut them out using a paper cutter or a ruler and craft knife. You can also make holes for string or ribbon in the corners by using a hole punch.
Handmade Holiday Greeting Cards
When you’ve downloaded the holiday image you’d like to use, paste it into a word processing or PowerPoint document. You can size the card by adjusting the software’s settings. Position the image on one half of the card, so it can be folded in half once it’s printed. Print the card on sturdy stock, fold it and and apply just a little glitter glue to make it sparkle. You can also make your own envelopes or just get some at the dollar store.
“Gather ‘Round the Family” Holiday Wreath
Making a holiday wreath is easy and can even be made when the family gathers to celebrate the holidays. Here are the supplies you’ll need to have on-hand:
- 1 plain Styrofoam wreath ring (your choice as far as size)
- Green construction paper, cut in the shape of holly leaves approximately four inches long
- vintage Christmas clip art or vintage cards of your choice (between 2 and 4 inches long), printed and cut along the outlines
- Scissors
- A box of short straight pins
Have family members and guests write Christmas messages and the date on the holly leaves. Then, stick them to the Styrofoam wreath with the straight pins. You might need to adjust the leaves to look good. The straight pins will make it easy to reposition the elements. (Just make sure to watch the little ones around the straight pins!) When you like the way the leaves look, pin clip art among the leaves. The resulting wreath will be a treasure that commemorates your family’s love every holiday season for a long time to come.
I hope you have a great time making these Christmas craft projects and that you have a happy holiday!
