How many times have you walked into a card shop, been drawn to a particularly sweet, funny or elegant card, turned it round and gasped at the price on the back, before quickly putting it back and hastily moving away? Well, I personally have been able to avoid that scenario as I have spent my entire life making cards for friends and family. Sure, I would have a cheaper pack ready and waiting for those I wasn’t particular bothered about giving a Christmas or birthday card to, but handmade cards are essentially me in a nutshell.
There is probably a general consensus that handmade cards are usually made younger family members who try their best to arrange some stickers, sequins and pictures on a card which always ends up being rather sticky. However, I firmly believe that handmade ones show a lot more effort and affection, particularly as you can tailor them to your hearts content.
I have to say that Christmas cards have always been my firm favourite to create, and for many years now I have actually stuck to a formula of old M&S wrapping paper cut outs and ribbons. Fortunately, my aunt keeps us in good supply of quality wrapping paper with sweet reindeer or Father Christmas’s. As you can see, they don’t necessarily look like they should sit on the £2.50 shelf at Clintons, but spending time arranging the pieces together is certainly satisfying. I tend to choose a few statement cut outs, then some smaller sequins etc. in order to give some balance and interest to the design.
Another rather intriguing way of spicing up a card is to use pre-folded cards with a cut out window. You could, of course, do this yourself, but for some reason I have always had a pack of these on the shelves that I have found useful. In this example, the three owls came from a tarnished bracelet that I was about to discard, and hung them from a ribbon (which in reality is one of those clothing straps that hold the item on the hanger – a useful thing to keep!).
I couldn’t write a card design post without featuring the cut-out style that features frequently in my boyfriend’s charming creations. Rather than layering as I tend to do, he uses a crafting knife to cut out lettering and drawings that give an overall simple yet very elegant effect. This definitely requires a mat underneath and a patient hand! Whereas mine usually needs quite a bit of soap to de-stick my hands after some good old fashioned pritt-stick-ing.
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