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NORTH ATTLEBORO - A group of women gathered recently to make their mark on Christmas - on Christmas cards, to be exact.

And they were just like kids around the holidays, taking part in what in the past has been considered child's play - using rubber stamps to create designs on paper.

"It's fun!" said one of the women as she decorated her stamped-on evergreen tree line design with glitter to give it a snow-dusted look.

"It's pretty; it's playing like children," said another as she punched construction paper to add dimension to the card's holiday scene.

"It's simple, it's easy and it gives everybody a chance to be creative and have fun," said Louise Carey of Norton, who led the hands-on workshop at the Richards Memorial Library. She has been a stamping demonstrator for about five years, but mostly does it as a hobby. Actually, rubber stamping has grown as a hobby among adults seeking to expand their creativity. There is even a rubber stamps club that provides tips and techniques for more sophisticated stamp art.

"There's no wrong way and no right way" to create the cards, Carey told the group of 10. They also designed covers for pocket calenders.

The technique for the cards included thoroughly inking the stamp pattern and imprinting it on a small square of cream-colored paper. The paper was taped to the front side of red construction paper which the ladies had folded earlier. The red acted as a border for the print which was adorned with glitter and additional circles of green and red attached with pop-up stickies to give it some depth.

The message for the inside is stamped, as well.

One of the women took a smaller pine cone design stamp and pressed it to the paper at different angles around the message to resemble a scattering of cones. Then she sprinkled that with glitter, "like fairy dust," she commented.

While they can be mailed, at least one participant thought they might be too nice to send to someone else.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.