These little Christmas reindeers are super easy to make and best of all, you hardly need any supplies. The problem with alot of Christmas crafts is you need to buy materials that you’ll probably only use for that project. It goes something like: buy a big pot of gold glitter, only use a pinch, use leftover gold glitter on everything you make for the next 5 years. Not with this project! The materials you need are general purpose items you probably already have around the house.
How to make reindeer Christmas cards
You will need
- A thumb or finger
- Brown paint (or red, yellow and blue if you’ll be mixing your own)
- White paint or white gel pen
- Glue
- Red felt for the nose – but you can use any material or paper you have laying around
- Black fineliner
- Piece of card
1. Mix up your paint
If you’ve bought brown paint then you’re good to go. If not, you can make brown by mixing red, blue and yellow.

I prefer to mix my own because the reindeer face will be made from varying shades of brown rather than being flat colour.
2. Print your reindeer face
Stick your thumb in the paint and press it down firmly on card. It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, your reindeer will have more character!
3. Cut out the nose
I’ve used red felt for the nose but you can use any fabric or paper you have to hand.
Glue the nose to the bottom of the thumb print.
4. Give your reindeer some eyes
Put two small blobs of white paint onto the face and allow to dry. Once the paint is dry draw on some eyeballs. Don’t worry if you’re reindeer looks a bit boss-eyed, tis the season to be merry!
5. Draw on the details
Use a fineliner to give your reindeer some personality. Add some antlers and accessories such as a scarf.
6. Fold card
Fold your card in half or cut out your reindeer to make gift tags.
Ta-dah!
Get creative
You could create Wintery backgrounds, add other animals, use glitter to create snow or make whole families of reindeer. If you like your Christmas cards minimal just add one reindeer for something neat and simple.
Post links to your reindeer cards in the comments below and I’ll add my favourites to this post 🙂
So cute! And now I feel even more festive – who knows I may even write a Christmas card or buy a pressie soon!
Well this tutorial is as far as I’ve got with making my Christmas cards. There’s going to be alot of finger painting to do over the weekend!
This looks staggeringly easy, and I’ve even got all the ingredients in the cupboard downstairs! Might give it a go over the weekend….
Now I find this idea, too late for cards this year. But I’m storing it up for next time. Fab idea 🙂
Thank you! I want to make more of these next year. Did the tutorial but didn’t get time to make many more.
Such a lovely idea. Well done. !!
Thanks so much for the idea. We used it to make Christmas cards during our 12 Days of Christmas with our Kids. They turned out cute! http://www.cleanheartsmessyrooms.com/?p=143
This is so nice to see Jenny, thanks for sending me a link. They did a fantastic job, hope you all had lots of fun making them 🙂
What a brilliant simple idea to make a superb Christmas card I love it, love it, love it. My grand children are making loads.
THANK YOU
This is lovely to hear Joan, thank you! 😊