Christmas crafts - easy peasy homemade cards

For the past few years, I have tried to make most of our Christmas cards myself. Making them as opposed to buying them isn't cheaper, as it depends on the designs your creating and the materials needed, but no matter what, it's so rewarding to do and I think people really appreciate the thought that goes into a hand crafted card.

With less time on my hands than before, I still want to craft but have to keep it simple, so the following designs fit my budget and the time I have to make enough cards for everyone.

For this idea, all you need is some card blanks (try The Works for great prices and bumper deals), a range of gift tags (I bought a pack of 24 Scandinavian style tags in Asda for just £2 and the others were just 50p from M&S in the sale last year) and a few buttons, sparkly bits or other festive toppers plus either double-sided tape or sticky foam pads.

I like to have a theme to my cards and wrapping and I am still in love with the whole brown card and paper / red and white Scandinavian scheme. I also have a slight obsession with buttons, so these have made an appearance too.

I've used gift tags with a festive message on as the centrepiece of the card then added a bow (around £2 for 24 from Hobbycraft) and some other little details.

I love the simplicity of the Christmas tree cards and I had fun playing with the layout of the luggage label style gift tags too. If you're using them on a smaller card, they fill most of the space, and on a bigger card, a few decorative details to the corners is all you need. I have a couple of cut-out stamps, a snowflake and a Christmas tree, so these are another idea for adding interest to the edges or corners.

Ethan has a few cards he'd also like to give this year so I bought a pack of 24 gift tags with fun children's designs on, again from Asda, for just £2 and cut these out to create some simple but fun card designs. Definitely keep an eye out for sales after Christmas so you can pick these kinds of things up for a snip, ready to make cards next year.

I use lots of things you might already have around the house, such as pegs, scraps of paper and buttons, so just see what you have to work with and you'd be surprised how easy it is to make a simple, personal card that your family and friends will love.