Button Christmas Cards For Kids

Whether it’s for a holiday party at school, a Christmas gift for grandma or for their best friend, making homemade cards is a great way for kids to share the joy of the season. I have a really big stash of buttons so I thought I would show you and the kids how use them to decorate simple cards for the holidays.

When you’re using a lot of buttons in a craft project, you tend to pick up and put down your glue bottle a lot. As your glue supply dwindles you can end up waiting longer and longer for the glue to come back down to the spout. That’s where these handy little gems come in!

These glue bottles are permanently upside down on purpose. It keeps your glue at the ready at all times! You can rest the bottle in the cap in between uses and it won’t dribble out all over the place. I am in love with these! Look for them at JoAnn’s.

I chose to use the clear gel because when you work with buttons, the glue will ooze up and out of the button holes. While white glue will dry, you may still be able to see it a little, but not with the clear gel.

Note: I’m going to give you instructions for these exact cards, but you can use whatever colors or designs you like!

You will need:

• Cardstock: light blue, red, green, white
• Aleene’s Always Ready Clear Gel Tacky Glue
• Buttons in various colors
• Fine point black pen or marker
• Markers: orange, red, green
• Gold ribbon
• Pink crayon
• Scissors

If your card stock is square, trim it so that it’s a rectangle. Fold card stock in half to create the cards.

Snowman
Draw a simple snowman shape onto white card stock. Doesn’t matter if it’s messy as the pen or pencil lines will not be seen. Cut out the snowman shape and cover the side with the pencil lines with glue and stick it to the front of the light blue card. Glue buttons onto the front of the snowman and two for earmuffs, one on either side of the head. Use markers to add an orange nose and black eyes. Use a blue marker to draw a line connecting the earmuffs across his head.

Christmas Tree
Glue green buttons in the shape of a pine tree onto the red card. Glue a brown button to the bottom for the trunk. Tie a piece of ribbon into a bow and trim the ends. Glue the bow to the top of the tree.

Ornaments
Glue colorful buttons to the green card to create ornaments. Draw a line from each button up to the top of the card, stop about 1/2” from the crease. Draw a little bow onto the “string” and draw a little square at the top of the button to complete the ornament. Draw a line across the top of the card for all the ornaments to hang from. You can also draw holly berries and leaves and color them in.

Rudolph
I used a red shank button for this card because I thought it was the cutest. You can use a regular 2 or 4 hole button instead if you like. First cut the shank off the button and then glue it to the white card. Use a black pen to add two dots for the eyes. Draw two lines above the eyes angled off to the left and the right. Draw on simple lines to finish the antlers. Finish off by adding rosy cheeks with a pink crayon.

You can write a greeting on the front or leave them as is. Let the cards dry completely before writing your message inside.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Project created by Amanda Formaro for I Love to Create. Amanda is a well-known craft expert and author of the  books "Rubber Band Mania" and "Duct Tape Mania", the first two in a series of craft books for kids. She has been writing and crafting on the Internet for over fifteen years. Find out more on her blog, Crafts by Amanda, where she shares tutorials with step-by-step photos for adults and kids alike.