Don’t have a lot of time to spend on Christmas crafts? Not to worry, because the World Wide Web is full of free images that can be used to create quick and easy Christmas craft projects. For example, crafts made from vintage Christmas greeting cards or free vintage Christmas clip art found online are simple to make, due to the fact that vintage images are versatile and also quite effective when it comes to delivering a holiday message. Because of their age, vintage images can also be downloaded and used without fear of copyright infringement. That’s a terrific bonus, because you don’t have to worry about using other people’s art illegally.
Just a quick online search using the search term “vintage Christmas” will give you a large number of free vintage images from which a lot of craft projects can be made. And if you’re not a fan of vintage, new 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 might find it more fun to make your own. Simply download the the image or images you like and paste them into a table in your word processing program. The table should have two columns and six or eight rows, depending on how long and thin you want the gift 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 onto heavy 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 Christmas image you’d like to use, paste it into a word processing or PowerPoint 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 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.
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
- 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
Ask everyone to write Christmas messages and the date on the holly-shaped paper leaves. Then, position them in a balanced way around the Styrofoam wreath and affix them 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 straight pins!) When the leaves are all in position on the wreath, pin clip art among the leaves. The result will be a custom wreath that reflects your family’s love every holiday season for a long time to come.
I hope you enjoy making these simple and fun Christmas crafts and that you have a joyful Christmas!