I long for the moment when Christmas was more about spending time with friends, family and loved ones and less about fussing over finding the ideal gift; when little handmade tokens were more important than a department store gift card. Just call me schmaltzy, but my much loved part of Christmas is getting together with friends to bake cookies, spending time with the children coloring Santa Claus pictures and planning up of any Christmas crafts that I can think of.

Being said all that, I have come up with a few grand Christmas card ideas, making use of card templates and stencils. Usually, you can use Christmas stencils the standard way and paint the picture onto a card, however there are a lot of other ways to use stencils. I took some stencils from my collections and delved into just how many ideas I could come up with using them to adorn Christmas cards.

Let's begin with the fundamentals of card making and then move ahead to the creative ideas. Cut a sheet of colored construction paper down to a 6x8 inch rectangle. Fold it in half to make a 4x6 inch card.

Idea #1. Find a Christmas stencil that you like at your local craft store or on-line. They come as plastic pre-cut stencils all set for painting or printable stencils that you can come across on the internet or in book format. Each category has advantages and disadvantages. The pre-cut stencils are all set. They are also more costly. The printable stencils still has to be cut out. However, they are inexpensive and oftentimes free.

Idea #2. The most fundamental technique to use a stencil in card making is with paint. Just lay your stencil on the front portion of the card. You can tape it down or hold it in place. Use up and down movement with a stencil brush to apply paint in the stencil hole. The stippling technique is done to prevent paint from seeping beneath the ends of the stencil openings.

Idea #3. There is also a grand way to use stencils as Christmas card templates. Mark out the holes of the stencil onto colored paper, cut it out and glue to the front of the card.

Idea #4. If you found a fine printable stencil, you can get rid of the steps of cutting out the stencil hole and tracing the image onto the paper. Just lay down the paper with the stencil on top of the colored paper and slice along the lines using a craft knife. Push down tightly to cut through both paper. Make sure that both pages stay together as you cut it. Glue the figure to the front part of the card.

I know that you can come up with a lot of other creative Christmas card ideas. In the end, it's that special touch that you are aiming for, right? Don't forget that eventually the Grinch found out that Christmas was something that comes straight from the heart!