The Art of Making Greeting Cards

When you begin the art of making greeting cards, you're giving of yourself and telling your family and friends how much they mean to you. What's more, when you make your own cards, you have the opportunity to recycle materials you already have, so the gesture becomes as green as it is heartfelt.

Choose the Right Paper
To get started, the first thing you need to do is choose the paper you'll use to make your card. Although construction paper or vellum work well as card inserts, it's best to use cardstock or other heavy paper for the outside of the card. Heavier papers give you a sturdier surface to work with and it holds up better than lighter-weight papers when it comes to decorations like rubber stamps, embossing or glued-on embellishments.

You can find good quality cardstock in a variety of colors at your local craft store, but you can also find good deals at office supply stores. Keep your eyes open when you're shopping for good finds. Alternatively, you can re-use greeting cards that you've received and make your own inserts or use elements of them to embellish your cardstock.

Card Size
Depending upon how the card will be delivered-by hand or via the postal service-you'll want to consider what size to the make the card. If you're making a single card for a specific occasion, go large, small or conventional postal size. Although oversized or smaller cards might require additional postage, most odd sizes are accepted by the postal service.

If you're making batches of holiday cards, it's best to stick with conventional dimensions so you don't wind up paying exorbitant postage. When in doubt, contact your local postal service and ask about dimensions.

If you discover the size of card you want to send is not accepted, you can always place the card inside of an envelope that falls within the accepted parameters. So what if the card is smaller than the envelope? What matters is that you took the time to create a handmade card.

Rubbers Stamps for Card Making
Rubber stamps are perfect for card making projects. Use them to make borders for your cards, to personalize messages, create backgrounds or carry a theme throughout the design of your card. If you plan on making large batches of cards or taking up card making as hobby, you might also consider getting a custom rubber stamp that marks the back of the card as handmade by you.

The beauty of working with rubber stamps is that you have a variety of options when it comes to ink color. Use the same stamp to repeat your theme in different colors or use different-sized stamps that share a theme, like flowers, to add depth and variation to your design. Use rubber stamps on the outside or inside of cards and, depending on the image you're stamping, use art markers or blending pens to customize the design further.

Don't forget your envelopes: make coordinating card designs by carrying your colors, themes and overall design scheme throughout all the card elements.

Essential Card Making Materials
Aside from paper, scissors, glue, arts markers and an envelope, you will only need your imagination. Adding ribbons, buttons and any type of scrapbooking embellishments will enhance the card one hundred fold.

For embellishments or punchies-the hole left over when using a paper punch-use scrap papers from your last project or from paper goods you have around the house. Punchies can be punched from food boxes, old letterhead or gift wrap. Aluminum or decorative foil makes great stars and waxed paper adds layers of transparency if you don't have any vellum handy.

Basic Pocket Card
Fold an 11" x 8.5" piece of heavy paper in half lengthwise, then width-wise, so that you have a card that is ¼ the original size of the paper.

Use a pencil to mark the front of the card (you can erase the mark later), then unfold the paper. Use a star-shaped cookie cutter to trace a star on the inside of the card front, then cut the shape out with scissors or a craft knife. Glue or tape aluminum or decorative foil on the inside cover, over the cut out.

Re-fold the paper into the original card. Using a thin line of glue, glue the open edges of the card together to close the gaps (be careful not to seal the card itself). Decorate, embellish and send. For texture, use sand, crushed rice, sugar crystals, sandpaper, textured or embossed scrapbooking paper or textured fabrics.