Today, I want to share a personal story while at the same time showing you how to make DIY Make-Up Christmas cards with things you already probably have at home. I still write Christmas cards and I used to write many, many more ~ which is what I want to share with you today.
To make the cards, you will need: some paper, make-up sponges, eye liners and/or lip liners and nail polish. You could use any paper, but I used a thicker version so that the nail polish didn’t bleed through. It only took me about 10 minutes per card so I think you could do a lot if you want to and still have them ready in time.
For this first card, I used a make-up sponge to create an ombre effect with three different colors of nail polish. I then used a white eye liner pen to ink in the stars. You could also dab some glittery eyeshadow on the stars, but in that case I suggest you fix it with a transparent top coat nail polish.
For many many years now, I used to write Christmas cards for my grandmother. She had shaky hands and didn’t pride herself in her handwriting so I did it for her. I used to buy Christmas cards, go to her house and we would decide on the text together. Then, I would write and write until my hands got sore. But we drank coffee and gossiped and the time flew by.
For this DIY Make-Up Christmas card, I used a precisely cut make-up sponge shaped like a triangle and tried to create some poinsettias. I am definitely not an artist but I think you can still tell what I was trying to do there and I personally think it looks cute. I then used some silver nail polish to fill in the blank spaces.
Every year, we had a little “fight” over who she is going to send the cards to. She was very frugal when it came to herself (but was always incredibly generous when it came to other people) and as she didn’t want to waste money, she wanted to drop people from the list and I didn’t let her. At the end of the day, I always lied to her about how much the cards and the stamps cost because she already have at least 50€ ready to reimburse me for my “costs”. When I told her that was way too much, she would stuff that 50€ in my pocket and tell me to “buy myself something nice”. She gave me allowance well into my 30’s. That’s the kind of person she was. Always thinking of others, putting others first, loving everyone.
This card was made with eye liner for the strings and different nail polishes for the ornaments. I think you could use a thinner brush to create some designs on the ornaments as well. I finished everything off with two golden borders which tie everything together nicely.
On April 11th, my grandmother passed away after a sudden illness. We almost lost her to a series of unfortunate events 20 years ago and I was incredibly lucky to have these additional decades with her. She taught me so much about life. But still, I wasn’t ready. And after more then six months, I’m still crying when I’m writing these lines. She was one of my best friends and I could always, always count on her. I loved her so much and I miss her every single day. At the end on the night when he’s already fast asleep, baby M always gets a big kiss from his mum and I also give him one for my grandmother who’s looking out after us from a place far, far away. I’m happy she had at least one year with him and at the same time sad, she isn’t here to see him grow up.
This last card was made with nail polish only. Again, I used the blue nail polish to create a background and a green one with a diamond shaped make-up sponge to draw the tree. I then did some simple decorations on the tree as well.
So today, these cards were made in memory of my grandmother. I used the time I would spend with her to create them and I was thinking of her with every brush stroke and every line. Mama Ana, I miss you so much. These cards are for you and for our special bond that will never go away.
Until next time, stay beautiful. And hug those close to you especially tight today.