Made: MERRY & JOY Christmas cards

Being a massive Christmas obsessive, every year I pick up a few of the Christmas magazines from the supermarket to indulge myself, and it was in the Ideal Home Christmas* mag that I saw the image that would give me the idea for these cards. Their suggestion was to use air-drying clay to make personalised gift tags (I think they'd also make great place settings for a DIY wedding) but I had the idea to make them into cute hanging decorations to put onto the front of Christmas cards.

* I know, I really am rock & roll till I die, aren't I!

You will need:
- White air-drying clay (mine was from eBay)
- A flat surface, such as a glass chopping board or clean worktop
- Rolling pin
- Biscuit cutters
- Alphabet stamps (a lot of tutorials specify metal stamps, but I used standard rubber stamps from Paperchase and they were fine)
- A skewer or chopstick
- Very fine sandpaper
- Thin ribbon
- Washi tape
- Coloured card

1. Pull out a good handful of clay and knead for a minute or two. Roll out to approximately 4mm thick - too thin and the shapes will tear or warp when you stamp them. As you roll, keep lifting and flipping the clay or it will adhere to your work surface.

2. Use the biscuit cutters - I used two sizes of hearts and stars - to cut out your shapes. Remove excess clay and lift the shapes off the board again, to prevent sticking. I can't emphasise how important this is: not lifting regularly will leave you will lovely, neat shapes that are thoroughly stuck to your work surface!

3. Use a skewer or chopstick to make a hole towards the top of each shape. I found this easiest to do if I held the shape in one hand while pushing the chopstick through with the other.

4. Placing the shape onto the board again, use the stamps to spell out your message. I used MERRY for my larger shapes and JOY for my smaller ones. You could also personalise these by stamping the recipient's name.

5. Flatten out any slightly curled edges and leave to dry. This will take upwards of 48 hours.

6. Once completely dry and set, use the sandpaper to very gently remove the rough edges from your shapes.

7. Thread some pretty ribbon through the hole and use a small piece of craft or washi tape to affix to the back or inside of your folded card, leaving the decoration hanging over the top onto the front of the card. I used red card, because it's what I had to hand, but I think they'd look stunning hung with silver ribbon onto dark blue card.