Too busy to spend a lot of time on Christmas crafts with your family? Well, you're in luck, because the online world is a great source of free images that can be used to make easy holiday craft projects. As an example, crafts made from vintage Christmas cards or vintage holiday clip art found online make projects simple, due to the fact that vintage images are versatile and also quite effective when it comes to delivering a holiday message. Because of their age, vintage images can also be downloaded and used without fear of copyright infringement. That's a terrific bonus, because you don't have to worry about using other people's art illegally.

Just a quick online search using the search term “vintage Christmas” will give you a large number of free vintage images from which a lot of craft projects can be made. And if you're not a fan of vintage, new Christmas clip art can also be used to produce beautiful projects.

Here are examples of three projects nearly anyone can make by using free art found online:

Christmas Gift Tags
There are actually free holiday gift tags on the Internet but you might find it more fun to make your own. Simply download the the image or images you like and paste them into a table in your word processing program. The table should have two columns and six or eight rows, depending on how long and thin you want the gift cards to be. Paste the art into every other cell if you want to fold them or in every cell if you don't, making sure there's enough room to write people's names. Then, print the page onto card stock, cut them out using a paper cutter or a ruler and craft knife. You can also make holes for string or ribbon in the corners by using a hole punch.

Handmade Holiday Cards
Once you've gone online and downloaded the holiday image you would like to use, paste it into a word processing or PowerPoint document. You can size the card by adjusting the software's settings. Position the image on one half of the card, so it can be folded in half once it's printed. Print the card on card stock as heavy as your printer will allow, fold it and and apply just a little glitter glue to make it sparkle. You might also want to make your own envelopes or just buy two-for-a-dollar card and envelope sets at the dollar store and then throw away the cards.

Family Love Holiday Wreath
Crafting Christmas wreath is simple and can even be made when your family gets together for Christmas dinner. Here are the supplies you'll need:

• 1 plain Styrofoam wreath ring (your choice as far as size)
• Green construction paper, cut in the shape of holly leaves approximately four inches long
• Free Christmas clip art or vintage cards of your choice (between 2 and 4 inches long), printed and cut along the outlines
• Scissors
• A box of short straight pins

Have family members and guests write Christmas messages and the date on the holly leaves. Then, position them in a balanced way around the Styrofoam wreath and affix them with the straight pins. Be prepared to adjust the positioning of the leaves a bit to get them to look balanced. The pins will make it easy to reposition everything. (Just make sure to watch the little ones around the straight pins!) When you like the way the leaves look, pin clip art among the leaves. The result will be a custom wreath that reflects your family's love for a long time to come.

I hope you have a great time making these holiday craft projects and that you have a joyful holiday!