Making your own Greeting Cards

By Diedra Suedmeier

Title page iii

Making your own Greeting CardsA Guide to Making Home-Made Greeting Cards for Ages 13+

Diedra Suedmeier

Table of Contents v

Table of contentsContentsIntroduction page.........................................................................................................................vii

Finding a Purpose for your Card....................................................................................................3

Who will your card be for?.........................................................................................................3

What will your message be?......................................................................................................4

Choosing Colors and Paper............................................................................................................7

What would your recipient like?................................................................................................7

Does the paper you are choosing match the other paper you have selected?..........................7

What paper should you eliminate?............................................................................................8

Creating a Layout.........................................................................................................................11

What do you want your card to say?.......................................................................................11

How do you want your card to look?.......................................................................................12

Assembling your Card..................................................................................................................15

How do I assemble my card?....................................................................................................15

How do I add accents?.............................................................................................................16

Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 17

Index............................................................................................................................................ 19

Introduction vii

Introduction page

Making home-madegreeting cards can be a fun and rewarding activity. They can be both an artistic outlet and a creative gift for a friend. No matter how much technology progresses with emails, e-cards, and multi-media text messages, giving paper greeting cards is almost always the most appropriate way to say “Happy Birthday”, “Thanks”, “Happy Holidays”, “Condolences” or even a simple “Hello”. Unlike store bought cards, home-made greeting cards will make whatever message you are sending much more memorable.

In this manual I will be explaining the complete process of how I make greeting cards. In fact, I made all of the greeting cards on the cover of this manual. I treat every card like an original piece of art so I don’t use any templates. Because of this, I will mostly be explaining the design process of the card. That way, you can be freer in your art and will be given the material to create, not duplicate.

Because of the use of sharp blades, expensive equipment, and potentially messy materials; these instructions are meant for people over the age of thirteen. Children under the age of thirteen can also enjoy making greeting cards with proper assistance from a parent or guardian.

I hope you enjoy creating many lovely cards with the help of this manual and your recipients appreciate them as works of art.

Finding a Purpose for your Card

Finding a Purpose for your Card 3

Finding a Purpose for your CardWho will your card be for?Before you start to make your card, you will need to identify who the recipient of the card will be. Determining the answers to these questions will help you choose colors, themes, and accents later on in the process. Try to identify the following characteristics in your recipient:

Gender?

o A boy might not appreciate receiving a card with lots of flowers and bows..

Age?

o If you are making a card for a small child you can use more primary colors, and childish accents like princess crowns and toy trucks; however, a card for an adult might use a more neutral palette and have more elegant accents

Relation? (Are they a family member? A colleague? A teacher? Etc.)

o If he/she is a family member you can be more informal than you would be with a teacher.

Particular Interests?

o If you can identify any particular interests in your recipient you can incorporate them into the card. For example, if you are giving a card to your father who loves to travel, you can use a map as the background for your card.

Favorite color?

o You can also incorporate their favorite color in the card to make it more personal.

4 Making your own Greeting Cards

What will your message be?It is also

important for you to think about what you want to say with this card. Deciding your message will determine the theme of the card. Here are some possible messages:

Happy Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving

You’re Invited

Happy Holidays

I’m Sorry

Congratulations!

Condolences

Welcome

Hello

I Miss You!I Love You!

Thank you

The message possibilities for your card are endless!

Choosing Colors and Paper

Choosing Colors and Paper 7

Choosing Colors and PaperWhat would your recipient like?When choosing colors and paper keep your recipient in mind. What colors would they like? Would they prefer a bold style with primary colors, or a soft elegant card with neutral colors? While looking through your collection of paper, choose a color palette and a general theme for the card to help you sort through your selection.

Does the paper you are choosing match the other paper you have selected?While sorting through the paper, make sure the paper goes together. Try to avoid colors that clash, too many busy patterns, or paper textures that are too similar. When choosing paper you want to select a variety of colors and a variety of textures to create a more artistic look for your card. A monochrome card with only solid, flat, colors is more difficult to make look good than a card with a variety of colors and textures.

For a reference on what colors will go together, use the color wheel. Use colors directly opposite of each other for complementary colors, colors near each other for colors in the same family, and colors closer or further from the center of the wheel for different shades of the same color.

Tip! Hold paper side-by-side fanned out to see how they will look next to each other on your card.

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What paper should you eliminate?After you have selected several pieces of paper that you think fit the recipient and message of your card, narrow your results down to a select few pieces of paper that you think go together the best and fit your purpose the best. Eliminate any paper that isn’t the best.

Creating a Layout

Creating a Layout 11

Creating a LayoutWhat do you want your card to say?Keeping your recipient and message in mind, what do you want the cover of your card to actually have written on it? There are many ways to get the same message across. For example “Happy Birthday”, “Birthday Wishes”, “Sweet 16”, or “Wishing you a Wonderful Birthday” all basically mean the same thing. Should their name be on the cover of your card? Can your message be expressed with a picture instead?

Your decision may be influenced by the crafting materials you have. Depending on your materials and equipment, you can fit more letters onto the front of your card. Maybe you have a pen that stands out against the paper you have chosen, and you like your handwriting so you can write a very long message on the front without it interfering with the design of the card; or maybe you have a stamp that has words on it that fit your card. If you have neither a pen nor a stamp that work, you can cut out the letters needed to express your message. Cut out letters tend to not be as small as what you can stamp or write. With the help of a Cricut, cutting out letters is much easier, faster, and neater than cutting out letters by hand.

After evaluating what materials and equipment you have, decide on how you will express your message on your card.

12 Making your own Greeting Cards

How do you want your card to look?By drawing a quick sketch of your card, you can decide what your card will look like. Make quick sketches of your ideas so you have time to draw many and decide on the best one. By choosing the colors, paper, theme, and message of your card; most of your card design is already decided. All that is left is the layout of your card.

When deciding on the layout of your card remember a few basic design principles:

Rule of thirds

o Just like in photography, the focus of your card should be at the intersection between two of the most exterior lines that divide your card into thirds. Nothing should ever be centered.

Shape

o Try to use interesting shapes in your card instead of just rectangles. A combination of squares, curves, and ovals is a good mix of shapes.

Texture

o A variety of texture will make your card seem more three-dimensional. Crumpling paper, ripping paper, folding paper, and using textured cardstock are all ways to create texture.

Negative space

o Don’t make your card too busy! Have some less-busy, empty space through-out your card so the card isn’t too overwhelming and you can draw a focus to the more important and detailed parts of your card.

Layers

o Layers also give a more three-dimensional look to your card. They can also build up focuses in your card that you want to be more dominant.

Contrast

o Create contrast with a variety of colors, textures and shapes. The more contract, the more interesting your card will be to look at!

Dominance

o Make sure that the focuses of your card are more dominant than the rest of your card. For example, if you have a picture as your focus, don’t overwhelm it with strong accents right next to it.

Assembling your Card

Conclusion 15

Assembling your CardHow do I assemble my card?After creating a final layout for your card, all you have left to do is assemble it. You may have to cut, and glue pieces together using a variety of different tools. Some helpful tools to avoid stencils, rulers, liquid glue, and hours of work are the

Straight edge cutter

Scissors

Stamps

Pens

Ink

Cricut

Various hole punches

Glue dots

Adhesive glue tape

Straight edge cutters, scissors, and cricuts, have sharp blades. Take care to use tools correctly and cut only paper and ribbon. Ink and pens also have the potential to stain

Danger!

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How do I add accents?Once you finish assembling what you have designed with your layout sketch, search for accents that could complement your card. A few buttons or a bow go a long way in tying a card

together and add more texture to your card. Other accents to use are paper flowers, rhinestones, brads, paperclips and brass label holders.

Conclusion 17

Conclusion

Hopefully at this point you have a beautiful greeting card in front of you; ready to give to your mothers, teacher, boss or whoever it was intended for. With any luck, this manual helped you through the process! I hope that you will continue to make greeting cards and expect that they will bring joy and comfort to whoever you give your cards. The art of card making is something that everyone can enjoy if given the chance.

18 Making your own Greeting Cards

Indexcolors, 3, 7, 12Contrast, 12Cricut, 11, 17Dominance, 12greeting cards, vii, 19home-made, viiLayers, 12

message, vii, 4, 8, 11, 12Negative space, 12Rule of thirds, 12Shape, 12Texture, 12, 18theme, 4, 7, 12