I’m big into handwritten thank you notes. Growing up, my mom was always making us sit down and write thank you notes to family and friends who gave us gifts or did extra special things for us. To help make it feel more fun and special, she would let me create my own cards on which to write my notes. I followed in her footsteps and encouraged my kids to always write personal notes to people after Christmas and other holidays. In this new digital age, it was also a great way to teach them how to organize a letter and address an envelope! And I often modeled this for them by writing my own notes, often making my own cards to do so just like when I was a kid.

To this day, I enjoy creating cards to send. This winter, I decided to use a snowflake theme for my holiday thank you cards. So one day over winter break, I dug out some blank notecards and gathered old grocery paper bags, white printer paper, scissors, glue, white paint with little brush, glitter and spray acrylic sealer.

First, I used the technique we have been using in class to fold paper squares and cut out sections to make unique snowflakes.

I cut rectangles out of the brown paper bags that were a little smaller than the notecards. I glued them onto blank notecards and then glued one or two snowflakes onto the brown paper.

After leaving them pressed under a couple heavy books to keep flat, I laid them outside and used the paint brush to lightly splatter them white paint. I then sprinkled them with a little bit of glitter before lightly spraying with the clear acrylic spray.

Once dry, they were ready for my handwritten notes to family and friends for all the wonderful surprises they sent my way over the holidays!