Holiday Printables for Creative Corner Cutting

Some holiday is just around the corner and the stores are full of merchandise you can buy to celebrate it. Every year it seems that every holiday has some new items enticing you to part with your money. Not to begrudge retailers the way they make their living, but families need to watch their bottom line also. A great way to introduce some creativity into your holiday in a budget-conscious way is to go to the internet for many of the ideas and printables there.

Printables for every occasion are available for little or no cost but the price of your own printer's ink and paper. Are you planning a holiday party? You can print custom invitations and envelopes, wrapping paper, and gift tags. For party decorations you can print napkin rings, place cards, banners, garlands, party favors, and gift bags. Many decorating motifs available on a printable invitation or coloring page can be adapted to a centerpiece by mounting on sticks and adding other traditional centerpiece elements, such as fresh or dried flowers, branches, leaves, fruit, candy, ribbons or any number of things. Printable games like bingo, puzzles, and activity sheets can also be party icebreakers.

Do you love to craft? Scrapbooking is one of the top forms of crafting today. On the internet you can find printable scrapbooking supplies in the form of free printable pages of backgrounds, borders, frames, alphabets, journaling helps, 'diecuts', and clipart. Be certain to load your printer with acid-free paper and you are on your way to adding all kinds of creative, colorful embellishments to your holiday scrapbook pages or anytime pages.

Children love to get into any holiday frame of mind with printables just for kids. Coloring pages are the easiest and most prolific kids' holiday printable and are available by the hundreds in nearly every topic of interest to kids in addition to holidays: animals, cartoon characters, fantasy, outer space, dinosaurs, transportation, the seasons and educational topics like learning their alphabet. Children's holiday coloring pages can become a holiday greeting card, a gift, or even gift wrap or an ornament. Children love to decorate their windows for the holidays, so you could try the following craft. Print a coloring page and have your child color it with marker pens. Very lightly brush the page with vegetable oil and blot with a paper towel. Tape the picture inside a homemade construction-paper frame and hang in a sunny window. This treatment gives the coloring page a translucent "stained window" quality.

Another fun thing you can do with a holiday printable is to make your own custom stickers. Start with any printable clip-art or graphic or even your own photographs. Use your favorite publishing or word processing program and full size label paper. Avery is a popular brand of label paper, but any brand will do. Simply set up an entire page of the pictures you want for your stickers and print them on your label paper. Allow the ink to dry thoroughly, and then cut apart into individual stickers. If you like your stickers a little bit more moisture proof, you can spray a couple of light coats of clear acrylic spray on them before you cut them apart. Another option would be to print your designs on plain paper then use a photocopier to copy them to the label paper. This second option will be the most moisture proof.

If you never before had a look at what is available on the internet, do so before your next holiday. Anything that comes from paper may possibly be a free printable available for you. Even some things you may not usually think of printing may be out there, because there are some very original and clever ideas out there if you look. For creativity and economy, printing your own holiday supplies is the way to go.