What you need...

• POSCA pens, PC-1M Mono Pack
  uni PIN 0.5 pen
  Black paper, A4
  Kraft card blanks, square
  Gift tags

instructions

1. The Basics - Sweet & Simple
   When it comes to yuletide crafts, sometimes simple is best. Editing your theme to four essential colours and some key motifs can really unify your Christmas look and give you very effective results.
   
   Make an Impact
   We’ve made use of the four-piece POSCA PC-1M Mono pack, with black, white, gold and silver, to produce a co-ordinated set of festive makes. As these pens dry opaque, the shades work incredibly well on dark backgrounds.
   
   Classic Christmas
   For a truly unified look, we have stuck to a strict theme with these pieces, using holly, mistletoe and fir sprigs as our key illustrations. We’ve also kept our script fairly uniform and opted for an easy to recreate, ornate hand-lettering scheme.

2. LET IT SNOW SIGN - 1 Place the ‘Let It Snow’ template on a flat, smooth surface. Lay the tracing paper on top and fix with masking tape. Trace the picture with a uni PIN 0.5 pen, then remove the template from underneath the tracing paper. Turn the tracing over so the image is face down, and apply 2B pencil to the back of your drawing, moving the lead back and forth to create an even surface.
   
   2 To transfer the drawing, place the tracing paper gently on top of black paper, with the pencil stroke side face down. Fix with masking tape. Go over the lines with pressure, using a sharp HB pencil, onto the card. Lift up the tracing paper to reveal the image. If you find it difficult to see the tracing on black paper, shine a light over the paper as you work on it.
   
   3 When happy with the look, use a white POSCA PC-1M to go over the motif and colour in. Fill in any gaps, using a simple snowflake motif. To do this, make a cross, then draw two diagonal intersecting lines over it as shown. Embellish the intersecting lines with dashes, dots and heart shapes to complete. Rub out any remaining pencil marks and smudges with an eraser.

3. RUSTIC CARD - 1 Using a sharp pencil, draw a circle onto the surface of a card blank. Use a white PC-1M POSCA pen to make four curved lines on the circle guide; two either side at the top, and two with a 1cm gap at the bottom.
   
   2 Staying with the white pen, draw rounded leaves along the lines and colour in. Use the white PC-1M to draw in clusters of three little berries and single dots along the stems as shown.
   
   3 Draw in the holly design by using the white pen to make three dots in a triangle, then add curved lines out of the berries. Add sprigs around the holly motif. Now repeat along the other side. Once dry, add in little details such as berries or lights onto the sprigs.
   
   4 Finish with a little rose in the bottom-left between the mistletoe sprigs. Add the ‘Merry Xmas’ sentiment. To make your text more ornate, draw lines around the outside of the basic letter shapes as illustrated, adding accents and curves as you connect the lines to the letter.