I truly think these might just be the cutest inexpensive handmade holiday cards!

When I started playing around with Rubbernecker’s brand new Winter Animals 6×6 Paper Pad and the coordinating Winter Animals Dies , I had no idea that I would be creating one of the cutest inexpensive handmade holiday cards one can make. Honestly, is this not one of the most adorable things you’ve seen?

I added a frame using Rubbernecker’s Inside Scallop Frame and a snowy bank using their Deckle Hills and that’s all it took to create this adorable design. And it was only after I finished and was making the list of things I used that I realized this could be a fabulous inexpensive option to make and send all your holiday cards this year.

Here’s the breakdown. The Winter Animals Paper Pads are $8 each and each one gives you the materials to make 16 cards. The die to cut out the irresistible cuties is $25. For the first 16 cards, your cost to make these – excluding card bases and scraps for your own details – is $2.06 per card. The savings explode when you make more! If you make an additional 16 cards, you cost per card drops to $1.28 and when you add another 16 it drops to $1.02. And so on! 

And since the designs in the Winter Animals Paper Pad are all so expertly designed to look hand stamped colored and cut out, no one will be the wiser that these cards take mere moments to make! In my book, that’s a huge win win!

Let me share with you how fast and easy the making of my version of these cards is.

Card Base, Frame and Snow

• Cut an A2 sized card base and a Deckle Hills snow layer using white cardstock.
• Cut a 5.50″ x 4.25″ layer from the new Winter Animals 6×6 Paper Pad. and attach it to the card base using double stick tape.
• Use the Inside Scallop Frame die to cut the red frame using a solid piece of cardstock from the paper pad.  Note:  The 16 double sided pieces of  coordinating paper in the pad are 80# cardstock. 
• Run the snow layer through the wave crimper and attach it to the back of the scallop frame using double stick tape.
• Apply strips of mounting tape to the back of the frame and attach it to the card base.
• If you don’t have or want to purchase the materials to make this snowy base, you can free hand cut one from a scrap of white card stock. And you can use any frame die you have – just adjust your scene to fit inside your scene. Don’t have a frame die? Skip it! Your cards do NOT have to be identical to mine or anyone else’s! 

Winter Animal Paper Pad Images

• Pull one sheet of the pre-colored Winter Animals images from the pad.
• Loosely cut around the images making sure to leave enough border for die cutting.
• Line up the coordinating dies over the images, secure them in place with masking tape and run through the die cutting machine.  Pro Tip:  I placed several of the images and dies on my cutting platform and ran them through all at once.
• Apply pieces of mounting tape to the back of the images and attach them to the card base.  
• Did you notice that you are done?

Here are the only four things from Rubbernecker that you will need. Note that there are 8 pages of these images in the Winter Animals 6×6  Paper Pad so you can get a LOT of cards out of this one little pad. You can even stretch the value of this collection even more by using half the animals on each card and cutting up the background papers differently to get additional pieces.

5500-01D Inside scallop frame Die [ RBB ] 2013 Winter Animals 6×6 Paper pad [ RBB ] 2013D Winter Animals Die [ RBB ] 5173-02D Deckle Hills Die Cut [ RBB ]

For all the everyday items that I use over and over, take a peek at all my other favorite crafting tools here.

Am I correct – are these possibly cutest inexpensive handmade holiday cards you can turn out this year? You can leave it as is or pop your favorite holiday sentiment as you like. Either way, these cards are absolutely adorable and can really save you a ton of time and money this year!