Even Easier DIY Holiday Notecards

In my previous post, Easy DIY Holiday Card (and the trick to mass production), I made 30+ cards for friends and family, including a letter and two pictures. I mailed or handed these out to my family members and close friends.

But here’s show another easy holiday card I made this year. This version will be put into the mailboxes at the elementary school where I work. It includes a short, personalized, hand-written note and of course a name; otherwise each card is pretty near identical.

As an added bonus for me, I had all the materials I needed already in my house – kind of needing and waiting to be used. I don’t know what I would have done with this stuff otherwise.

4″ x 6″ index off-white index cards were the base. These cards are huge compared to regular index cards, and a lot of them didn’t have lines on either side, so I didn’t know what to use them for. I think colored cards of this size would be fun, too.

I made a very simple tree. I had 3″ x 3″ squares of green paper. They are the same size as Post-it notes, but did not have a sticky part, therefore I (again) had no idea what to use them for.

Because the slips of green paper were squares, I folded them diagonally and cut them apart to make two equal triangles.

I used a glue stick to paste the first triangle’s wide base parallel to the bottom, just below the center of the index card.

I glued the second triangle about 3/4″ above the first triangle. This way the whole top triangle was showing.

Last, I drew a trunk with brown marker. No need to be perfect.

I wrote the name of the receiver in cursive above the tree, at the top of the card, in red skinny marker, and the message in plain black pen. For my convenience I also wrote the full name of the receiver so it will be easier for me to find their mailboxes (which only contain last names).

My custom messages were short, and said things like “I love coming to your classroom”, “Thanks for always saying hi in the halls”, “Hope you have a wonderful break”, etc.

Dear readers, I hope your holidays are extra special, too!

 

Easy DIY Holiday Card (and the trick to mass production)

The last few years I’ve made our Christmas cards on a website and inserted pictures. This year, we didn’t get any professional photos taken and I decided to go a different route: DIY.

I bought pre-cut cards from Michaels, the kind that are even pre-creased and all you have to do is fold them. They even come with envelopes. (I used the Recollections brand.) Mine were 4″x5.5″. I strongly recommend folding them on the crease, then using fingernails to make a crisp fold. This way, they fit in the envelopes better.

I had some stationary paper in two shades of green. It was easy to make a tree – fold part of the paper in half and cut a triangle. Unfold to find a bigger, symmetrical triangle.

I traced several triangles first. I cut them out next. I glued the small one down first so the big triangle tree would appear in front. 

Next, I added the star stickers. You know, those sheets of multicolored shiny stars? I used red for the big tree and either silver or gold for the smaller tree.

Used a thick brown Crayola marker to make trunks on the triangle trees (so they looked like actual trees.)

Used a thin gray Crayola marker to add “Merry Christmas” in my best cursive.

For the inside, I wrote a brief, generic letter in a word processor for each sendee. It was the width of one side of the card, and a little longer than the length of the card. I found the line I wanted to fold the paper up on so it would fit and folded them all, so I’d know where to apply the glue stick, before gluing any.

In the fold of the letter I put in the selected two photos I printed a while ago. I made a picture collage of two vertically oriented photos and printed them on 4×6 photo paper through Walmart’s photo website. When I received the prints, I cut each one apart using my portable paper cutter, so they are 3″ x 4″.

On the opposite inside, I wrote a much more brief personalized message in green pen and signed it for myself, and had Husband sign for himself and for our dog, who appears in one of the pictures.

The trick to making 30 nearly-identical cards is to do each step on each card before moving on to the next step. For example, I creased ALL the cards, then traced ALL the big triangles (that would fit on a folded page)… etc. It was easy to do all that when the big and small triangles were all cut out. I glued all the triangles, THEN stuck on all the stars, THEN drew all the trunks, THEN wrote “Merry Christmas” on each card…. It flew by, and I think made them look closer to identical.

Do you make your own holiday cards?

An even easier holiday notecard for those friends who don’t need the whole letter: HERE!

Easy Breakfast for the Week: Baked Oatmeal

Every morning during the week I eat an apple and a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey. It keeps me full until my lunch break. But I wanted something more fun and different, so I made baked oatmeal.

The recipe I used is this one:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Baked-Oatmeal

and I strongly recommend it!!

I had a lot of oatmeal because I stopped eating it regularly, and this recipe uses 3 cups. YAY! Now it’s almost gone.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups oats (I used Old Fashioned Oats rather than Quick-Cooking; it worked fine)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs (I used cage free)
• 1 cup milk (I used organic whole milk)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• Pan greaser (I used olive oil spray)

Materials:

• Large bowl
• Medium bowl
• Big spoon
• Whisk
• 1 cup dry measuring cup
• 1 tsp measuring spoon
• Liquid measuring cup
• 9×9 square baking pan
• Dull knife to cut from pan after cooked

The directions are super simple – I wrote them out differently so it’s easy to read:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS: oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Melt butter. (I chopped up 1 stick (1/2 cup) and put it in a microwave safe bowl. Microwaved for a little under 1 minute and stirred.)
4. In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk and melted butter. Stir into oat mixture until blended.
5. Spoon into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake 40-45 minutes or until set.
6. (Serve warm with milk.) Yield: 9 servings.

I forgot to grease the pan until the mixture was in the pan, so I had to dump it BACK into the bowl, wipe out the pan, spray the oil, and then re-empty the bowl into the baking pan. Whoops! (I’m still new at this baking thing. At least I remembered in the end – what a nightmare that would have been!)

I cooked for about 43 minutes before checking, and it looked done, so I took it out and let it cool. I ate a couple of pieces warm, and a piece this morning after refrigerating and did NOT heat it up – it was still delicious cold!

As you can see I have already enjoyed 3 pieces. I found it difficult to cut into 9 pieces; I did 12 (3×4) instead. They are good sized.

This morning’s piece! Mmmm! APPROVED. I’ll probably eat this for dessert some days too. I’ll try to update again with how long I stay full!