Home > Seasons and Holidays > Christmas Activities, Crafts and Recipes > Thank you Cards – Snowmen and Trees

Thank you Cards – Snowmen and Trees

With Christmas just over and yet again our house looking like a toy store, one of the things that I think is very important is saying “Thank you” for the gifts, in the past I have made J’s first Christmas Thank you cards and last Christmas we sent out a picture card of him, but as he’s a little older this year we’ve made them.

Potato Printing
J potato printing for the first time using paper to practice on

I asked J what he wanted to make and he said typically Snowmen (yes we still have no snow and he’s obsessed with it) so thinking hat on and Potato printing of snowmen and trees was my new activity for the week – we haven’t done Potato printing before.

What you need

Cutting board
Sharp Knife
1 large Potato

Dish with White Paint
Dish with Green Paint

Black Paper
Card Blanks

How the fun happens

I cut a potato in half and quickly drew a very rough snowman and tree on either half and then carefully (I must stress carefully as I managed to cut myself – but then that’s fairly common for me as I’m quite accident prone) cut around the shape and out so I had a raised snowman and tree.

Potato print stamps
The potato’s cut for stamping in the shape of a snowman and a Christmas tree

I really can’t remember where I saw it (and if anyone knows please let me know so I can link back) but on the rounded side of the potato I cut out two wedges either side leaving a large block in the middle making it easier for J to hold and print with.

Handles added to potato to help toddler print with
The handle on the potato that helped J to print easily with it

We have only done printing twice – once in the summer was a disaster and then as part of the 30 days of Hands on Play Challenge where we did snow prints (yes even back in November he was slightly obsessed with snow). So before printing the Thank You Cards I let him lose to practice printing on some paper. He loved it. As you can see by the snowman covered paper (which I’m keeping to use as wrapping paper for small gifts next year).

To A6 sized pieces of black paper J printed 1 snowman or 1 Tree and then we left them to dry.

The front of the cards drying without embellishments on them.
Potato print Thank You cards without the embellishments drying

We have added embellishments to them – some glitter, stickers and I have written Thank You on the front of each piece of paper, glued it to the front a card blank and then wrote the message in side that J has said to me – which has consisted of “Thank you ……… for my present from Santa” so I added a little bit extra to make them more personalised.

I will add to this post the final image once they have been received as I don’t want to spoil it for some people that read my blog regularly (Uncle P and Nana and Pops).

Out Now! – Countdown to Christmas Ebook

When life gets hectic in the lead up to Christmas wouldn’t it be great to be able to spend a little time with the family creating gifts for others, food to enjoy together and traditions that make magical Christmas Memories?

But what actually happens is you spend hours searching through Pinterest looking for ideas and realise halfway through saying you are going to start that you have only 1 thing on the materials list!

I’ve been there!

So that is why we’ve put together our 24 favourite Christmas Activities, Crafts and Recipes with full materials lists and step-by-step instructions so that you have everything at your fingertips.

Produced as a PDF you can download, print and use these ideas throughout the festive season with your children and families.

Find out more as we share with you our Favourite Ways to Countdown to Christmas.

Author
Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.

2 Comments

  1. The wedges on the other side are a great idea! I need to try potato prints with my kids. I have the same accident-prone problem…

  2. Lovely! And great idea to add a potato printing Handle… now we really must be off and do our thank you cards. Ooops.

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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