Enhanced with Stamps

As the weather turns colder and Thanksgiving comes and goes, our thoughts begin to turn to Christmas. We begin to consider the projects we will do to make the perfect gift or invite the Spirit of Christmas into our festivities. Scrapbooking and rubber stamping are great ways to create the ideal gift or communicate tender feelings. Stamped Christmas crafts offer a wide variety of projects and encompass a wide range of uses.

1. Hand Stamped Gift Wrap – Using clear rubber stamps on postal paper or freezer wrap is an easy and economical way of wrapping Christmas Gifts. Choose your rubber stamps, and stamp randomly over the paper. Add glitter or colorful swirls. The more you add the more interesting the paper becomes.
2. Stamped Christmas Gift Bags - This is most easily done using paper bags, however, you can buy gift bags in solid colors that also offer great results. Don’t be afraid to create matted labels, pictures, stamped titles, tags and so forth to decorate your bag. All these additional elements add interest and make the project fun.
3. Gift Tags – Christmas is the one time of year that a lot of gift tags are used. Use your rubber stamps to add elements on home made gift tags that will easily communicate festive Christmas Wishes.
4. Accordion Christmas Ornaments – This is an easy way to use up scraps of Christmas wrap – whether you stamped it or bought it, the technique is the same. Cut a strip of rectangular Christmas wrap – the width will be the radius of the completed ornament. Accordion fold it, then fan it out into a circle, gluing the ends together. Decorate the center by gluing a stamped, matted element. Add a ribbon as well as glitter if desired and it is ready for the tree.
5. Christmas Recipe Cards – With all the Christmas baking that is done, sharing recipes is almost always inevitable. Make your recipe sharing fun, by first stamping and embellishing your recipe card then pass it on to a friend who will always remember who gave it to her.
6. Christmas Advent Calendars – This is a great way to create an advent calendar with magnets. Using the back of a cookie sheet or other metallic surface, decorate it with scrapbook paper, or paint. Stamp your images on each square, then make corresponding images and attach a magnet.  I found it fun to use a rectangular burner cover.
7. Holiday Banners – Make an accordion card that when it is all opened up it spell a a Christmas wish or a word. These cards are great to use as a mantle decoration each year.
8. Stamped Background Papers – This is similar to doing gift wrap, but it is done on your 12×12 scrapbook papers to add a Christmas touch that will help draw your Christmas scrapbook theme together in a unifying way.
9. Christmas Boxes – Using either a paper mache or a wooden box with a lid, paint and stamp your box as desired. Add additional elements such as stamped people, ribbons, buttons etc to add interest to your project.
10. Mini Christmas Fridge Magnets – This works great for very small stamped images. Simply stamp the image and emboss it, then secure it to the bottom of a clear pebble with mac-tac. Once it has dried glue a strong magnet on the bottom and you have the finished project.
11. Wooden Shapes - There are a variety of wooden shapes available at craft stores that can be painted and stamped or embossed to accent Christmas decorations and party themes.
12. Christmas Candles – With a Christmas rubber stamp, decorate a pillar candle. Votive can also be stamped. Be sure to experiment before you do the actual project. To learn more about candle stamping on votives click here.
13. Christmas Crackers - To make Christmas crackers you will need an empty toilet paper roll and gold tissue paper. Stamp on the tissue paper in horizontal lines. Fill toilet paper tube with treats and wrap with the stamped tissue paper. Twist the ends to secure.
14. Stamped CD Ornaments – Cut and embellish two circles to cover the center of the CD using rubber stamps, glitter, embossing powders, ribbons etc. If the back of the CD has writing on it make the second circle big enough to cover that. Decorate the shiny area of the CD with glitter glue or string. Hang by threading a ribbon through the center of the CD before assembling.
15. Stamped Stocking Stuffers - Consider embellishing the cover of a notebook or journal with rubber stamp designs, glitter, ribbon, lace, buttons etc. Use this as a special stocking stuffer. Other stocking stuffers may include Christmas boxes, decorated post it notes that have been stamped on the sides, stamped stationery or stamped wooden picture frames.
16. Christmas Paper Garlands – use a Christmas shape such as a star or snowflake and decorate several with your clear rubber stamps. Once you are finished decorating, position a slit in each side and thread onto a ribbon or string to hang as a decoration in your home. A variation to this idea is to use clothes pins to attach the shapes to a string.
17. Christmas Cards – As always, rubber stamps are the means to creating your own beautiful and unique Christmas cards.
18. Christmas Party Invitations - To introduce a theme early, use your rubber stamps to make fascinating Christmas party invitations. Carry the theme throughout the party on napkins, place mats, place cards etc.
19. Christmas Photo Albums - Whether Christmas is over and you want to preserve the memories, or whether you want to design a memory book as a Christmas gift, using your rubber stamps will highlight your themes and add interest and creativity to your project.
20. Christmas Family Photo Frames – Design a frame from card stock, then embellish it with your rubber stamps and scrapbooking embellishments for a cute gift.

With so many things to stamp, it is hard to know where to start. No matter which project you choose, be sure to take the time you need, relax, and enjoy it from start to finish. Looking forward to the special holidays….celebrate stamping. Celebrate Christmas.