Kids can send season's greetings to friends and family by making Christmas cards from household materials. All they need to complete these projects is a creative spirit and some holiday cheer.

Kids will stay happily busy designing holiday cards using cookie cutters. They can outline a jolly shape on paper and color it in, or they can cut out shapes and glue them to the front of a card.

Kids will get the giggles as they make these less-than-traditional portraits on holiday cards -- and so will friends when they receive them. 

To start, use color photocopies or printouts of family pictures that your child can cut out and work with. Clothes can be made from wrapping paper, construction paper, wallpaper, glitter, or even newspaper, and glued on with a glue stick. Make color copies of the card and send them to everyone on your list so you can keep the original. 

Here's a new twist on the familiar refrigerator art display: Turn kids' drawings into magnets that can be used all year long. Have your child draw helpful refrigerator reminders, a Christmas tree and ornaments, or candles. Print onto magnet sheets; cut out. To give magnets as presents, affix them to a greeting card with double-sided tape.

Kids can use buttons to create a variety of holiday shapes on cardstock for a charming Christmas card. Use craft glue to affix buttons and construction paper shapes to the card.

Have your crafty little ones embellish blank cardboard frames with sequins, glitter, paper cutouts, and crayons. When decorations are glued on and dry, slip a photograph or drawing into the frame (for multiples, you can make color photocopies of the image).

With a cotton or linen handkerchief and fabric crayons, your little elves can make elegant (and useful) holiday cards that family and friends will cherish.

With just a little holiday magic, kids can turn houseplants into beautiful Christmas trees on cards for loved ones. Snip the tip off a fern (it doesn't harm the plant). Attach to card stock or construction paper with white glue. Cover with paper towel, weight down, and let dry for one day. Trim the tiny tannenbaums with cut-out stars and sequins.

Kids will love decorating holiday cards with rubber stamps made from their drawings.

With a pencil, kids can easily draw (or stencil) the recipient's initial onto a card and cut it out. Punch a hole in the letter, and tie it to a holiday gift with yarn or ribbon.

After printing our gift-bearing bear or generous pooch clip-art cards, kids write a personal message and attach them to gifts for classmates.

Print the Animal Clip Art