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Yesterday I delivered some new greeting cards to a local shop who carries my art and knitting (A Cottage Affair on Fair Oaks Blvd in Lyon Village, Sacramento, CA.).

I needed to box them up, or something. So I decided to be stylish and pulled out one of my cool Edwardian hat box cases (which I bought at Hold Everything, ages ago.)



I managed to carefully squish them all in, just. The little pocket in the lid was perfect for the notecards. Yay!


Here they are, unsquished a bit. There are several dozen all totalled, of all different designs.



I thought I'd share a little bit about how I make my cards. The ways to make a greeting card are endless of course. There are whole books written about making cards, for goodness sakes!
But the most basic elements of a traditional one-fold, image on front card are the same. You can go to town embellishing and having fun. But here's what I do for my most simple ones.

First I get some card stock with matching envelopes. I often buy these in bulk from a crafts store (Michaels, JoAnns, Beverlys, etc.). I also like to use Strathmore's special cardstock which comes in a variety of sizes and styles (some with a deckled edge, some notecard size, some with a colored edge, etc.) You can also make your own out of any kind of paper, of course. You can also buy envelopes (or make them if you're really industrious.)

This is a pack of ivory colored basic 5 x 7 card stock with the fold already scored, and matching envelopes.


You'll also need some supplies: mat knife, tape, a burnishing tool...


I love this tape they make now for scrapbooking that comes on a roller. You can get permanent, repositionable, archival, refillable, etc. It just depends on what you want.


You also need your images! I do sometimes print my images directly onto good card stock, but I've found that a lot of my work looks better printed on glossy photo paper. So I usually print up a bunch of images on that (at the right size ~ somewhat smaller than the 5 x 7 card size, or whatever) and then cut them out and tape them neatly and cleanly to the front of the card.
No jaggedy edges or scuffed image or crooked taping is allowed! It has to be PERFECT.


Then there's the back side. You always want to put your name or contact information on there somehow (at least I do). And maybe the title of the art, your copyright notice, company name, whatever you think is important.
Sometimes, if I'm doing a really small amount of cards, I'll set up a file in Photoshop and print the back side of each card. But doing it this way is very time consuming, because you have to feed each card through the printer one, at, a, time. (Same thing goes if you're printing the image directly onto the card stock.) It can make you crazy, especially if you have a big order. BUT. If you're doing something special, and its the only way to do it right, you just have to do it.


What I usually do for the backs now is print up a sheet of labels, and use one of those on the back. I love these ~ Avery #8667. They're small, and CLEAR, so if you burnish them down onto the card, they kind of disappear. They work well if you have colored card stock and don't want to stick a big white label on the back (tacky).
I just format them in Word (Office), its super easy. You can fuss with the typeface, make them be in color, whatever.


Then I always put my cards in a plastic bag. It keeps your card clean and protected and looks soooo much more professional.


Clear Bags makes about a jillion different kinds of bags for everything you can think of. There are probably other places to get them, but I've always used Clear Bags and have always been happy with them.


I also print up a page of "Card Inside" blurbs. I do a lot of blank cards, but sometimes there are "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hannukah" ones or whatever. When you have the card sealed in a bag, the buyer can't open it up to see what it says inside. So you have to put a little note with it. I just cut these up and pop one in the bag with the card, on the back side.


So here's what one looks like all packaged up.
Front ~


And back ~


And that's it!
It always takes way more time to put these together than I think it will. Even though I know that, I still think I'm going to just whip 'em out. And I don't. You have to print out the images, cut them, adhere them to the card stock, fold the card stock and press the edge with the burnisher to get a nice crease, print out the labels for the backs and then stick them on, then put them in bags with the 'inside message' blurb, and seal them up. It can get very tedious.
I'm just saying.

It does help to have studio mates to keep you company and cheer you on ~