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These easy DIY Christmas cards (and tags, and garland) came about because I was sent a set of watercolor markers to review. They’re the Hippie Crafter Watercolor Brush Pens (and other than receiving the pens I was in no other way compensated for this post, FYI).
I feel like there’s a learning curve on these to get the paint to blend the way I wanted it to, but this is a really fun and easy project whether you use watercolor pens or regular watercolors, or even just scribble on paper with paint, markers or crayons (everyone loves a kid-made card, right?).
And of course you could do this same idea for any easy greeting cards; just punch out different shapes.
Supplies for Easy DIY Christmas Cards
To make these cards all you need is some heavy weight paper (I used mixed media paper because that’s what I had; watercolor paper is fine, too) and something to mark up the paper with. Whether that’s watercolor pens, markers, crayons, oil pastels, or even a mix of different things is totally up to you.
You’ll also need some decorative paper punches (or use a cutting machine if you have it). I used a Christmas tree (similar, though smaller), a large circle and a small circle. You could also find templates for basic shapes online and cut them out by hand if you want. I also used a tiny hole punch to make holes for threading ribbon.
Speaking of that, you might want a bit of ribbon to embellish your cards or to make tags. To do ornaments the way I did, you’ll need a scrap of scrapbook paper or construction paper, or color a bit of your paper a contrasting color. I used a tape runner to adhere pieces, but you can use a glue stick if you have one handy.
And if you’re making greeting cards (I have other ideas for what to do with these shapes, too) you’ll need some blank greeting cards.
Making Watercolor Paper
The key to these easy DIY Christmas cards is having a colorful background to punch your shapes out of.
Using the watercolor markers I covered one page all over with green, then used the enclosed water brush to mix the colors together.
This taught me it’s better to wet a little bit at a time, so my second sheet of red, orange, purple and blue I used the wet brush after applying each color. I’m still not sure this is the effect I imagined (I thought they’d bleed into each other a bit more and the brush strokes would be less visible) but I still like how it turned out.
Allow your pages to dry before making your cards.
DIY Christmas Cards
Punch out your shapes using the paper punches or cut them out. I did a bunch of trees and a handful of each color of circles.
To turn the circles into ornaments, I cut little pieces of scrapbook paper and taped them to the back of each circle. Leave these longer than you think you’ll want if you want to punch a hole to hang them.
Then just grab a blank greeting card and start arranging!
This one uses a set of trees and I wrote the word merry with the pen end of the black watercolor brush. The pen ends are handy for doing outlining, details or writing. You can also use a regular pen.
This one has a large ornament, a small ornament and a tree. I made all mine horizontal but you can also make them with the card vertical. Write messages on the cutouts or on the card (inside or out) as you like.
Probably my favorite idea was this garland card.
To make it, punch a little hole at the top corners of the card and punch at the top of each shape.
Thread the shapes onto a bit of ribbon. Tie or tape the ribbon to the inside of the card or each side. So cute!
More Ideas for Christmas Paper Crafts
Of course you can also take an individual tree or ornament and make it into a gift tag. Just punch a hole at the top and thread a ribbon through to tie it to a bag, or just write on it and tape it to a gift.
Aside: this joy tag reminds me of a Christmas ornament I made from an old pair of jeans a few years ago.
They could also be holiday ornaments treated the same way.
My original idea was to make a holiday garland with them, which I ended up not totally loving when I hung it, but it’s super cute on my table. I think it would be cuter on a tree. Update to come when my tree is up!
Would you use these shapes to make easy DIY Christmas cards or some other craft? I’d love to hear your ideas!
