Make you own greeting cards

The Art of Card Making ...

These days we can send greetings to our friends and loved ones with ready-made cards or by email. But somehow, even though this is so easy to do, it is much more fulfilling to send a hand-made card with your own special message. Cards can be made to suit the personality of the person you are sending it to using pictures and messages of their favourite sport or hobby. I hope you enjoy looking at all the cards and ideas offered here on this lens. I have also included a few ready to print cards for you just in case you get stuck with no card and no time to make one.

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Greeting Card Project - 01

For this card I used a scalloped border print, a stained glass window print to match and a bow print. You can find all of these prints on the daily freebies slide of my blog. If there are none there today, they will be back so check daily.
First I glued on the scalloped border. I made two prints of the border and joined them. All the borders I post have seamless edges so if you cut them very accurately, the seams will be invisible.
Next I glued on the stained glass window. Next I used a circle stamp in two sizes to add some interest to the background of the card. If you do not have a circle stamp, you could try using other household items as a stamp such as the end of a piece of macaroni, or a piece of plastic tubing. You could also use a circle template and draw the circles with a felt pen or a coloured pencil.

Greeting Card Project - 02

For this card I used three Diamond Tea Bag Tiles
(You can find them on one of my tea bag tile CD's. Also on my Decorator CD's.)
I then added little stars using a rubber stamp and tiny square of coloured paper which I attached with a glue stick. You could also cut the square from plain coloured stickers if you have any.
Then I added a bow print from the freebies slide. You could also use a real ribbon bow.

Greeting Card Project - 03

The background for this card is from a print, but you can use any background paper that you like.
The medallion was made from two different tea bag tile prints. You will find the instructions on how to fold tea bag tiles on all my tea bag tile and decorating CD's.
Tea Bag Folding was done using two different tiles!
The lettering was done on a piece of card and backed with a contrasting piece of card which was cut somewhat larger. Four little gold studs were used to attach the lettering to the card, but you can also glue the lettering and backing with your favourite glue and then glue on the gold studs or use three dimensional paint to make imitation studs.

Greeting Card Project - 04

One of my favourite cards to make!
One single print from my freebies slide on my blog was used to make this card.
The first thing is to get the lettering done. You can pencil it in very lightly and then do the real lettering with a felt pen. When that is done, erase the pencil lines.
Next add the criss-cross lines with a coloured pencil. Make the pencil crosses in different sizes.
When you are finished doing the crosses with the coloured pencils, glue on the stained glass window.
For a final touch, add tiny little square of coloured paper or little pieces cut from paper ribbon.

Greeting Card Project - 05

For the background of this card, you could use any striped paper. Look out for nice striped wrapping paper. You could also use strips of coloured paper glued next to each other to form the stripes.
Three tea bag tiles on the left are the main decoration.
For the lettering, outline the rectangle first with a felt pen before cutting it out. Practice your lettering and draw it on very lightly with a pencil first before doing the real lettering with a felt pen. When the ink is dry, you can erase your pencil lines.

MORE PROJECTS BELOW

Greeting Card Project - 06

For this card I used one oval tile print in two different sizes.
Re-size your oval tile into two different sizes and print one copy of the larger size and two copies of the smaller size. Add a ribbon bow print, or better still, add a real ribbon bow.
Use your favourite craft glue to attach the prints and ribbon to the card. I like using spray-on adhesive for gluing paper to paper and tacky glue or mounting tape for the real ribbon.

Greeting Card Project - 07

For this card I used four diamond shaped tiles, one heart print and scraps of coloured paper to match.
First print out the four diamond tiles and the one heart print.
Cut out the prints and use the heart print as a pattern to cut out two more hearts out of scrap paper in colours that match the prints.
For this card, it is not practical to use a felt pen to draw the squiggly lines because the lighter colours would not show up against the darker coloured paper.
To get around this problem I cut the squiggly line from scraps of coloured paper. You can use any sort of paper, Search through old magazines to find pages that have large areas of plain coloured printing and use them for cutting out your squigglies.
The little squares are also cut from scrap paper.
Glue the hearts on first.
Next attach the squiggly lines.
Then the diamond tiles
Then the little squares.

Greeting Card Project - 08

Star prints and star stamps make up this card.
Re-size the star prints to suit the size of your card.
Make three prints of the chosen star print and cut them out and put aside for now.
Using a felt pen in any colour to match your card, draw some squiggly lines across the front of the card.
Next, attach the three stars to the card using your favourite glue or double sided sticky tape.
A small star stamp does the rest. Using stamping ink in colours to match the prints randomly stamp little stars in the spaces between the design.

Card Ideas from my Zazzle cards.

This is one of my cards from Zazzle. It is an easy card to make. All you need is a plain coloured piece of paper for the background and a nice looking print or photograph. You can choose to add some interesting text at the bottom of the card as I have done in which case, position the picture higher on the card to make room for the text.
You are welcome to browse through my cards on Zazzle to get some ideas for your home made cards ... I really don't mind as long as you don't copy them to sell commercially.

Tapestry Card - 027
by
ArtbyJean

Get this custom card at Zazzle

MATERIALS

You don't need too many supplies to make nice cards. A few simple items which you can get at most arts and crafts shops can be used to create stunning cards and most of them can be used for other crafts as well.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Patterns

You may need some tracing paper to transfer images and characters from a picture to make it into a pattern for later use. You can also use a photocopier to reproduce or change the size of images. These photocopies or patterns can then be placed over your project paper and used as a guide for cutting and planning your design.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Paper & Card Stock

Paper is one of the most important materials in making cards. You will need moderately thick, good quality paper that is easy to cut and reasonably easy to fold for the base of the card. Any other paper is good for decorating you card. Crinkle paper, hand made paper, tissue paper etc. can be used.

Greeting Card Project - 09

How to make this card!
The hardest part of making this card will be cutting out the flower print. I do all my cutting by the TV.
Using a sea sponge of crumpled up paper, sponge the card with paint in a soft colour to match your print. Make sure the paint is completely dry before adding the print.
Re-size the print if needed and cut carefully following all the details.
Using decoupage techniques, for positioning the print, fasten it to the card with spray on adhesive.
Finally, do the lettering using a felt pen in a colour to match the print.

Greeting Card Project - 10

Three rectangular tiles, and one rose print make up this greeting card. All these prints can be found on the daily freebies slide oon my blog. If there are none there today, keep looking, they will be back! A single rose with patterned ribbon is the main print for this card. Glue everything on with spray-on adhesive or you can use a glue stick or your favourite craft glue.

If you make lots of cards, especially if you make them to sell, it is a good idea to practice you lettering often. Hand written lettering can be very beautiful if done neatly. Treat yourself to an new exercise book, and take it along with you to fill in time wherever you go. Practice doing lettering in different sizes and challenge yourself to write a work in a pre-measured space and see how well you space out the letters. Your customers will be impressed!

MORE PROJECTS BELOW

Greeting Card Project - 11

This card was made with one print. A rectangular tile.
Re-size and print your rectangular tile.
Cut a piece of plain paper somewhat larger than the tile to use as a backing or border.
Mount the backing on the card, then mount the tile on the backing.
Next do the lettering.
Finally, add some stars with a rubber stamp or you can use little stickers.

Greeting Card Project - 12

This is soooo Easy! One single colourful tea bag tile. Some clever lettering, add some punched out dots and some little hand drawn dots and dashes around the lettering to finish this card. If you are not confident about doing the lettering, print some out using a nice font from your computer, then trace it on to your card very lightly. Then draw the final lettering with a bold felt pen.

MAKE YOUR OWN HANDMADE PAPER

Creative Handmade Paper

by: David Watson

Amazon Price: (as of 12/24/2009)

The Papermaker's Companion: The Ultimate Guide to Making And Using Handmade Paper

by: Helen Hiebert

Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 12/24/2009)

The Art And Craft of Papermaking: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating Distinctive Handmade Paper

by: Sophie Dawson

Amazon Price: (as of 12/24/2009)

Paper Supplies on eBay

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Greeting Card Project - 13

One Hugging Hearts print and one ribbon bow print are all you need to make this very easy card. You may need to re-size your prints to fit your card. Then for an added touch, punch out some dots from scrap paper using any paper punch. You can use old magazine pages to get a variety of coloured dots. Glue them on with your favourite craft glue and your are done!

You can find similar prints to these on my blog. If there are none there today, come back later. The freebie prints change almost every day!

Greeting Card Project - 14

For this very easy card, I used a rectangular frame with oval hole. You can either re-size the frame to fit your card, or trim your card to fit the frame ... the choice is yours. Three oval tea bag tiles in colours that match the frame were placed inside the frame using double sided mounting tape to raise them a bit and add texture to the card. Add a ribbon print, or you can use real ribbon to finish off the card.

Greeting Card Project - 15

A very easy card to make. Just print four oval tea bag tiles and position them in a vertical row. Attach them with double sided mounting tape to add texture to the card.
Check out my tea bag tile Lens (coming soon) for CD's with tea bag tiles.

MORE PROJECTS BELOW

Greeting Card Project - 16

Another very easy card to make.
I used a print of two linked hearts and re-sized it to fit my card leaving some space around the edged of the card. I positioned the hearts high up on the card and using two different felt pens to match the hearts I drew two squirly lines like ribbons across the bottom portion of the card. The little square were cut from scrap paper and glued on. I use spray on adhesive for most of my gluing, but you can also use a glue stick, or double sided sticky tape if that is what you prefer. The squirly ribbons can also be cut from scrap paper of from magazine pages.

Greeting Card Project - 17

For this card I cut a short length of crinkled paper ribbon to fit the height of the card. This ribbon is about 15 cm wide but comes all crinkled up in a roll.
I sort of flattened out the paper ribbon and mounted on the card with small bits of double sided mounting tape. Then I added the two quite large tea bag tiles, also with small bits of double sided mounting tape.

Greeting Card Project - 18

A very easy card to make.
For this card, I used a rectangular scrapbooking frame with an oval hole. Three tea bag tiles were added. I used double sided mounting tape to attach the tiles to the card so they are raised above the surface of the card, and the centre tile is raised above the level of the two tiles below it. The frame was attached using spray on adhesive, but you could also use a glue stick or double sided sticky tape if you prefer.

MAKE YOUR OWN MARBLED PAPER

Hand marbled paper is wonderful for decorating greeting cards. Most people I know who do marblingI for their cards like to spend at least one day a year just making marbled paper. This is usually enough to decorate hundreds of cards.

How to Marbleize Paper: Step-by-Step Instructions for 12 Traditional Patterns (Other Paper Crafts)

by: Gabriele Grunebaum

Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 12/24/2009)

The Paper Marbling Kit: Materials, Techniques, and Projects

by: Jane Dickinson

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 12/24/2009)

Techniques for Marbleizing Paper (Other Paper Crafts)

by: Gabriele Grunebaum

Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 12/24/2009)

Greeting Card Project - 19

This card is so easy! The blue card is one that I already had. It has a decorative gold edge and I think it is sold as cards for printing small invitations on ... I am not too sure about that though. I pasted the blue card with the gold edge trim on to the main card, then added two printed tea bag tiles. These tile are somewhat larger than you would normally print out if your were going to fold them to make folded medallions. Everything was put together using spray on adhesive, but you could also use a glue stick, of double sided sticky tape.

Greeting Card Project - 20

For this card, I used a Birthday Cake Print which you can find on the freebies slide. If there are none there today, keep checking, they will be back!
The first think I did, was print the cake print in a size to suit the card. I then got a rough idea as to where I was going to put it but did not attached it to the card as yet.
I used special artist calligraphy felt pens to draw the streamers across the front of the card. These have flat shaped points so you get the lines in varying thickness. This is not quite necessary, an ordinary felt pent will look just as nice. I used three different colours for my lines to match the cake print. Then I made some dots. I used an old circle template from my school days to make the dots, but you can draw them by hand. You could also use punches or punchies as you may call them to add the dots.
Another way you could add the "streamers" across the page is to cut them out of scraps of coloured paper, or from old magazine pages that have large areas of plain colours

MORE PROJECTS BELOW

Greeting Card Project - 21

For this card, I used five different prints. Three different heart shapes, One bow print, and one border print. These prints are posted on my freebies slide (at the top of my blog) from time to time so watch out for them.

You will need to double up the border print before printing and re-size it to suit your card. The bow print will also need to be sized to suit your card. Measure the spaces on your card and estimate the sizes of each component before printing them.

All these prints were cut by hand and them fastened to the card with spray on adhesive. You can also use a glue stick. Be careful of using any type of watery glue as it will cause the paper to curl and wrinkle and spoil the look of the card.

Greeting Card Project - 22

For this card, I just used one print from the freebies slide. A flower shaped cut out. The stem and leaves were drawn by hand. You can colour them in with either coloured pencils, felt pen, or paint. Then I added little dots around the design with a matching felt pen to add movement to the design. The lettering was first done on the computer, and sized to suit the card before printing. The lettering was then traced on to the card and written over with a matching felt pen. I attached the flower shape to the card with a gold stud in the centre of the flower shape. You could also make the flower 3 Dimensional by printing two copies of the flower shape and layering them one over the other. You would then need to mount the second one with some type of spacer like mounting tape, or silicon cement to get the petals to lift above the first layer. Very easy card to make

Greeting Card Project - 23

So easy! ... One Bow print which you can find in the freebies slide. If there are none there today, don't worry, they will be back! Just add some dots in different sizes and colour them in to match the bow print.
You can find similar prints posted as freebies on my blog. I post new freebies every day so watch out for them ... http://artbyjean.blogspot.com

Greeting Card Project - 24

A very easy card to make. I used a strip of plain coloured paper as a backing for the border. The border was make with three prints of a seamless tile.
(find seamless tiles on my blog) The bow print is one you will find in the freebies slide. If there are none featured today, keep lookin, they will be back. The lettering was done on the computer then traced on, but if you are good at lettering, you can do them directly by hand.

ABOUT SEAMLESS TILES.
Seamless tiles can be used in two different ways.
The first way is to simply match them end to end to get a continuous pattern.

The second way is turn every other one around to face the opposite direction so you get a mirror image.

You must cut them out very accurately in order to get a perfect invisible seam.

Greeting Card Project - 25

For this card I used some plain coloured paper in two matching solid colours to make the band across the bottom of the card (above the lettering). I then added a border which I made with prints from a seamless tile. I used three of these print to go all the way across the card. I then added the cross print and some punches which I made from scrapbs of coloured paper. I also cut thin strips of coloured paper and glued them around the edge of the card to make a border.

I like using spray on adhesive for gluing down the larger prints, but for small cutouts like the punched dots, I use a glue stick or any other glue I have on hand.

You can find similar prints to those used to make this card on my blog among the freebies. If you cannot find any you like today, keep checking the blog daily because I change the prints every day

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Punch Wheel

A punch wheel is a very useful too for making cards. It can be used to transform an even surface into a three-dimensional surface. A punch wheel can also add elegance to your cards by creating lace effects and stitching border on your cards.

Scissors on Amazon

J.A. Henckels International 5-Piece Scissors Set

Amazon Price: $29.99 (as of 12/24/2009)

Schoolwork's Scissors, Blunt Tip, 5" Full Length, Assorted (FSK88057097) Category: Childs Scissors

Amazon Price: (as of 12/24/2009)

Scissors on eBay

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Spray on Adhesive on eBay

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Make you own greeting cards

The Art of Card Making ...

Please vote for me on these craft sites.

Greeting Card Project - 01

Greeting Card Project - 02

Greeting Card Project - 03

Greeting Card Project - 04

Greeting Card Project - 05

Greeting Card Project - 06

Greeting Card Project - 07

Greeting Card Project - 08

Card Ideas from my Zazzle cards.

MATERIALS

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Patterns

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Paper & Card Stock

Greeting Card Project - 09

Greeting Card Project - 10

Greeting Card Project - 11

Greeting Card Project - 12

MAKE YOUR OWN HANDMADE PAPER

Paper Supplies on eBay

Greeting Card Project - 13

Greeting Card Project - 14

Greeting Card Project - 15

Greeting Card Project - 16

Greeting Card Project - 17

Greeting Card Project - 18

MAKE YOUR OWN MARBLED PAPER

Greeting Card Project - 19

Greeting Card Project - 20

Greeting Card Project - 21

Greeting Card Project - 22

Greeting Card Project - 23

Greeting Card Project - 24

Greeting Card Project - 25

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Punch Wheel

Scissors on Amazon

Scissors on eBay

Spray on Adhesive on eBay

Image Transfer Demo - Great to use on Greeting Cards

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Image Transfer Demo Using Laser Print and a Tacking Iron 0 points

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TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Craft Knives

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Cutting Mat

TOOLS & SUPPLIES - Punches

EMBELLISHMENTS TO DECORATE YOUR CARDS

Need some free prints to get you started with your cards?

FREE TEA BAG TILES FOR YOUR CARDS

Great Tea Bag Folding books on Amazon

CARD MAKING KIT - Set of 19 prints for you to download

Great Card Making Software on Amazon

Lenses with related crafts

New Link List

Links to "ArtbyJean" Websites

Craft Prints, Cafe Press, Free Graphics and more ....

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Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

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