DIY Ugly Holiday Sweater Cards To Make Now!

When I shared with you the splattered paint paper that I made to use for holiday crafting projects, I had no idea that I would be making an ugly holiday sweater card from my favorite piece! And that is one of the best parts of letting the art tell you what it wants to be, and the results of having a pile of abstract patterned paper to work with. I have been wanting to make an ugly chanukah sweater craft for a few years now, and last year while my holiday sweaters weren’t ugly, they were HUGE, made from cardboard and pom poms and strung on a clothesline! So this year, since I am into the painting, the sweaters will hopefully be like this one, only quite a bit larger, and of course I’ll let you in on all the fun that happens trying to make this idea reality!

In the mean time, with Chanukah roughly seven weeks away, now is a great time to make cards to send in the snail mail, as who wouldn’t appreciate a little whimsical work of art to brighten their days right about now? So get out the paint and some heavy weight paper, or light weight cardboard, and lets make some fun and creative holiday sweater cards. Ready?

You’ll Need:

• splattered and dripped DIY crafting paper, tutorial here, or a tiny canvas
• a white paint pen, Posca seems to be the brand that most folks prefer
• acrylic craft paint
• additional card stock/watercolor paper on which to mount art (optional)
• tiny piece of thin white paper, to make the dreidel patch
• a little frame for your art, why not send the “card” as something ready to hang?
• Coolers app, free, that you can use on the computer as well…..(optional but a great tool!)

How To:

1. There are many ways to draw a sweater, so practice a bit and see what suits you, or make a whole bunch of different ones, you know, cardigans, v-necks, turtle neck, etc. You might want to google simple sweater drawing to get this process going smoothly. Once you’ve decided how to draw your sweater, and you’ve practiced a bit, draw it with a white paint pen directly onto your piece of art paper. It is a good idea to figure out in advance the size your sweater will be and how to place it in the middle if you are not an experienced drawer, (and make some marks for yourself, with paint pen or tape) because you do want the sweater to be large enough to take advantage of the patterned paper! If you are planning to make a whole pile of sweaters you can opt to cut out one from cereal box cardboard (like I did here with t-shirts, ah yes, you could do t-shirts as well!)
2. In the photo above I did cover the border with masking tape, to leave that as a frame, but in the end the busy border, while interesting stole the show too much from the shirt, so I nixed that idea.
3. Now figure out a background color that compliments your ugly sweater. I had a gut feeling about neon/bright green, but nonetheless decided to give the color choosing app Coolers and try, and you can see the screen shot of that below. You basically lock in the colors you have and the program generates options for you, amazing!
4. Paint your background, as well as a small piece of paper with the same color paint, let it dry, and then think about adding some tiny dots and dashes and fun little marks to make it look festive.
5. With a black pen draw a little dreidel patch on the green painted paper scrap, cut it out and affix to your sweater!
6. Ta da, now decide how to turn this art into a card, by simply writing on the back, by gluing this to a folded card slightly bigger, or by framing and writing a message on the back of the frame. A card can be just about anything, just don’t forget to include the message!

It is true, my green didn’t end up as bright as the color I choose, but I’m happy with it. Now go make some cards and spread some joy!