A Blue Zest

Don’t have a lot of time to spend on Christmas crafts? Not to worry, because the Internet is a great source of free images that can be used to create quick and easy holiday craft projects. For example, crafts made from vintage Christmas greeting cards or vintage Christmas clipart 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 important for people who want to honor copyrights (as we all should).

Doing a fast online search for “vintage Christmas” will net you a huge number of no-cost images from which many fun crafts projects can be made. And if you’re not a fan of vintage, contemporary Christmas clip art can also be used to produce beautiful projects.

Here are examples of three projects nearly anyone can make by using free art found online:

Christmas Gift Tags
There are actually free holiday 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 insert them into a table in your word processing or other type of program. Make the table two columns by six or eight rows, depending on how tall you want the cards to be. Paste the art into every other cell if you want to fold them or in every cell if you don’t, making sure there’s enough room to write people’s names. Then, print the page onto card stock, cut the place cards 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 Christmas Cards
Once you’ve gone online and downloaded the Christmas image you would like to use, paste it into a Word, PowerPoint or OneNote document. You can size the card using 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 use a little glitter glue to make it sparkle. You can also make your own envelopes or just get some at the dollar store.

Family Love Christmas Wreath
Crafting holiday wreath is easy and can even be made when your family gets together for Christmas dinner. Here are the supplies you’ll need to have on-hand:

• 1 plain Styrofoam wreath ring (you choose the size)
• Green construction paper, cut in the shape of holly leaves approximately four inches long
• Free Christmas clipart or vintage cards of your choice (between 2 and 4 inches long), printed and cut along the outlines
• Scissors
• 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 small children don’t get their hands on the pins!) When you like the way the leaves look, add the clip art. The resulting wreath will be a treasure that commemorates your family’s love for a long time to come.

I hope you have a great time making these holiday craft projects and that you have a joyful holiday!