A Card with a View
Another Christmas Card project! This one is a very simple idea which is really easy to make, and has the added benefit of recycling your old Christmas cards, so unless you’ve saved some cards from last year, this may be one to keep for the future!
When I was a child, we inherited a few old early 20th century cards from a great-aunt, who had kept them because they were rather more special than your average card. I don’t know what happened to them, but I remember a couple of them in particular took my fancy. These were 3 dimensional snow scenes with a snowy window effect on clear plastic in front of them. You see this sort of thing all the time now, but as a child I loved them. I have also always liked the view through a window, or peep through into another world or secret scene. This card then for me, combines all those nostalgic memories.
All you need is a blank piece of folded white card, a snow scene from an old Christmas card (if it is a glittery one, so much the better!) some glue, some sticky tape, a small piece of clear acetate, some white acrylic paint, a brush, and a craft knife to cut out a window effect.
If you need to, trim your snow scene to select the best bit, and make it small enough to fit inside your card. Decide where it is going to be placed, then cut out a window in the front of the card using a craft knife. You can make this window as simple or as fancy as you like, but you need to include a few ‘glazing bars’ to make it more window like! If you’re feeling really adventurous, you could even include the silhouette of a cat on the window sill!
Cut your piece of acetate a little larger than the window opening, and then spatter it with some white acrylic paint to create a snow effect. I like to do this by flicking the paint from a brush – though if you haven’t tried this before, you may want to practice a bit first on a piece of paper. You can also spatter paint using a toothbrush or a comb – just make sure you get the consistency of the paint right – runny enough to spatter, but thick enough to dry with a white appearance.
Once the paint has dried, you can tape or glue the edges of the acetate over the back of your ‘window’.
That’s all there is to it – you can add further decorative details if you wish inside or on the front of the card, but I think it looks pretty good and minimal without.
And if you find that you and/or your kids enjoy paint spattering, here is a previous Christmas projects using the technique: Snow Paper
