Home-Made Cards {Tutorial}

Back in November I wrote a post here about making and sending home-made cards.  I've had quite a few comments and emails from readers wanting to know if I would write a tutorial on card making.  

Let me just say that I am the last person that should be telling you how to make cards.  I have some really, really creative friends that do some amazing things in the card making department.

But...  I do love making them.  And, for myself, I've learned a few things that make it fun, quick and easy.  So here we go!  

First of all, I have a card making box where I keep all my supplies.  These are separate from my other paper crafting, scrap booking supplies because when I am in the mood to make cards, I want to be able to just grab my stuff and get started.

I use a vintage Coca Cola crate.  It fits in my cupboard, it has handles, it holds all my supplies.  Plus it is cute.  And cute is important right?  

So here are some of the things I have found that work good for me.  

First of all I buy all my supplies from Hobby Lobby.  Partly that is because I have one close by.  Also, they have their scrapbooking supplies 50% off about every other week.  If you need something today and don't want to wait for it to go on sale, you can download a 40% off coupon to use when checking out, right from your smart phone .  However, you can buy supplies wherever you prefer to shop for your paper crafting things.  

I think it is worth every penny to buy a value pack of blank notecards and envelopes.   The cards are scored for folding, they have matching envelopes and they are the perfect size.  They also come in all colors; I prefer white, ivory, or the craft paper type.  

I kind of have the personality that I get bored using the exact same paper for every card, so I never purchase full sheets of paper.  I find that my favorite thing to keep on hand are the Paper Pads.  They come in either 5 x 5 or 6 x 6 in a lot of different styles, colors and designs.  They vary in how many pages are in a pad but typically there are about 25 to 35 sheets.  They typically cost about $5.99.

   

And of course you want to have plenty of tape!   I purchase the pack of 4 glue runners because I always like to have plenty on hand.  Believe me, my grand-daughters can use up one these in about 30 minutes if I'm not watching!  :-)  

Then the rest of the supplies are up to your personal preference.  I love different paper punches, but right now my favorite are the circles.  You'll notice in the picture above that I punched circles out of my paper scraps and just sewed them together.  I love doing it like this.  It makes it fun to cut them to size and use them in all different ways.  

 I keep several different colored ink pads and a favorite stamp, and also some letter stamps.  Those really come in handy.

I don't use a lot of embellishments on my cards, but I do love Washi tape, buttons and brads, and I really love doing a little hand sewing touch with embroidery thread.

One of my favorite things to use to embellish a card or just add a simple little message are journaling cards.  My favorite are the ones above made by Becky Higgins for her Project Life line.  Hobby Lobby carries these.  They are about $7 but there are 60 cards and I never use a full card.  Usually I cut them in half, or just use a corner.  So they can be used for a whole lot of cards.

Now that you have all your supplies together, just start cutting and glueing paper to your blank card.  That is all there is to it.  One thing that I do not do is spend a lot of time on a card.  I make it from start to finish in less than 5 minutes usually.  My paper isn't straight or lined up perfectly.  I just eyeball things and glue them on.  

I do love sewing on cards, either by hand or with my sewing machine.  It is super quick and I think gives it kind of a unique look.  

The cards above are very basic.  A piece of paper cut and glued on.  A journaling card cut to size with a little black ink smeared on the edges, and glued on.  And then a little hand embroidery.  Literally a few minutes and it is complete.  

The fun thing about some of the paper packs is that there are usually pages with lettering or a message of some sort.  It really makes it easy to make a card then.

The little letter stamps are nice for writing your own message.

Very simple, very fast.  I think the key is to remember that perfection isn't required.  A very simple card can be just as beautiful as one that takes an hour to make.  Also, I like to make mine all different just because that is my personality.  But, since they are obviously not going to the same person you can make them all exactly the same and that would be very fast.  

I've discovered that the key to sending a note to someone when you think of them, is having cards made up in advance.  So when you are thinking of someone it isn't hard to jot a note and stick it in the mail.  I have mine all ready with the return address on them, as well as a postage stamp.  No excuses that way!

So, there you have it.  

Now, a CHALLENGE!  We all love them right?  Make your cards, email me a picture and I'll do a follow-up blog post in about a month featuring everyone's cards.  (Tip:  think Valentine's cards!)

Happy Monday!

P.S.  If you haven't entered my give-away here, you still have time.  Deadline is this Friday!