12th night update: making 3D star rainbow Christmas cards

It is 12^th night today which is a day in the Christian Christmas calendar that traditionally we take down our holiday decorations. So I thought I would show you my handmade offerings as you may want to take all year to think about in advance what greetings to send to your friends, family, neighbours, suppliers and colleagues.

At the end of 2020 with everything that the virus and the lockdowns have brought into all of our lives we decided that gold stars all round was definitely in order. So I opened up my TinkerCAD software and designed a five pointed 3 dimensional star with heart shaped cut outs on each point and an extra hole for stringing up.

We started up our AnyCubic Predator 3D printer and printed several sheets of identical stars using the print driver program to load the TinkerCAD design. Each star has a surrounding border which is snapped off before attaching to the card. The gold coloured filament is made from PLA which is made from entirely natural substances such as maize and sugar cane and it is non-toxic.

I also wanted to share the amazing rainbow I photographed in Chichester harbour this winter. The rainbow has been a symbol of hope since the 1^st lockdown and I have enjoyed sharing my rainbow images with people this year. My solution was to print a batch of small copies of the colourful harbour pictures with my HP colour printer. I then used crayons in a variety of bright hues to frame the uplifting picture with hand drawn clouds and landscape with lots of texture.

My X-acto craft knife allowed me to create some freestyle shapes and cut out a cloud section that I then pasted on the inside of the cards. For maximum impact when the cards were displayed on a flat surface I decorated the 'backside' of the card with my joyful rainbows and the design then flowed onto some tartan, bauble and dove prints on the 'front' page of the medium sized cards. The festive card stock I had in my supplies already and I wanted to use them even though they had a few different basic designs on them already. This was because we were in a lockdown and I am reusing everything I can when it come to my materials so nothing is wasted.

I used silky ribbon 'cut offs' to make hanging loops that attached to round holes I punched with my hole punch. The stars can be saved for next year and hung as a separate tree decoration in the future. Some tiny extra gold foil stars added a final shiny embellishment to these cheerful postal tokens.

Inside I stamped the white pages with snowflakes, more stars, a reindeer with a sleigh, an elaborate 'love from' emblem and a swirly merry Christmas and happy new year message. I used gold, red and blue inks from Hobbycraft.

We were pleased with our batch of handmade cards this year and they brightened up a few living rooms this season. They were handed out and sent in a fairly fast and hectic way as usual. The last international and national posting dates dictate the deadline for the project every December so thank you for your patience if I have forgotten any one in my rush to the post office. It is worth noting that I needed to purchase large stamps as the width of the cards with the attached stars was around 8 millimetres deep, once the pieces were popped in the envelopes.

It was fun to work together as a team and introduce the 3D printing element and I look forward to more 2D and 3D combined projects in 2021. I hope this post inspires you to make some cards in advance this year. I love receiving handmade cards and had several this year which were so gratefully received and they generated much needed jolly vibes and they were enjoyed by all. Card making is a great activity to do in lockdown and making your own cards can be very theraputic for all ages and also save some money in your household budget too.

To see more handmade items in our online shop visit us at

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CreateDisplay

(1) Hobbycraft art and craft suppliers, 6 January 2021 https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/