Making Greeting Cards and Paper Art

finished greeting cardI recently made a set of personal greeting cards and thought I’d share my top secrets on how to make them with my fans. In this case I made this set to entertain my mom while we sat in the hospital so I recommend it as a great hospital art project you can do on those tiny bed desks.

If you have a grandma or grandpa around, or a special auntie, start by asking for their spare paper and cloth… but if you just have office supplies that’s okay too, because the set I am showing you is made entirely with items my mother had in her drawers.

Here is the set of greeting cards made in the hospital:

The inside message is,  “thank you for being there for me”.

My Method:  Manilla folders make perfect card stock. I just cut them in half to make two cards from one folder, and trim the resulting cards to the size of a greeting card.

To decorate the cards, I took some colored sticky notes, folded them diagonally, then cut and tore the edges. This creates snow flake shapes when you open them. I also took some colored paper, and tore it into little pieces.

I used a glue stick to apply the paper scraps to the cards.  Then I took pens, pencils and highlighters to draw on them shapes and little images. Bumble bees and flowers seemed perfect for summertime.

In order to create an inner greeting and text, I typed text on a computer, and then laser printed the text, 2-up on a letter size paper, cut them in two and folder them into the cards. I used a little shiny white twine to sew the paper into cards.

One minor mistake I made was that I cut the cards before I had measured envelopes. So it took more time to find fitting envelopes than it took to make the actual cards.

And there we have it … Now we have personal greeting cards to give friends, to show my love and thankfulness to them today.

 

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