Card Making Activity

Above is a handmade card one of my clients made. Below, with the assistance of my talented client and my wonderful cell phone picture taker, are the photos and instructions on making this card ... or using your imagination ... any homemade card. Please excuse the picture quality. I find the cell phone is less intrusive then my big dinosaur of a digital camera.

These are the products we used for this project: A printed piece of paper, a solid piece of paper, a pre-made, folded, cardstock card and matching envelope from Oriental Trading , a CTMH stamping Ink Pad, a pair of scissors and a sponge dauber. Of course you can use just a plain piece of heavy white 8.5x11 paper, cardstock or light colored construction paper and fold it in half. You'd just have to disregard the first few instructions. Of course, you could always use the "tearing technique". Just click that link for more instructions.

The first thing we did was trace the scalloped edges of the card onto the solid colored paper. As you can see my client found it easier to fold the card over the solid paper. This helps to keep the solid piece of paper from sliding around.



Next, cut along the lines the best you can.



Sometimes it's hard to cut the scallops so it's probably best to take your time and not rush. Some clients may be able to do this just fine, others may need a little help or a break in the middle of cutting to rest their hands before they resume the project.


To leave a white edge scootch the blue paper up a half inch and fold the excess over the back of the card. Make a crease at the fold. Cut off this extra piece. Of course if you have a craft cutter you can use that but most clients may not know how to use one and would prefer to use scissors. Remember if there are steps they have trouble with, give them a chance to do it themselves then offer to help them. It's so tempting to just say "Hey, let me give you a hand!" then do it yourself without giving them a few chances to try it themselves. If your fingers are itching, then have enough product on hand so you can make one for yourself!




Ok so now adhere the solid color to the white card. A glue stick would be the easiest adhesive to use. My client used double stick tape.


Next, distress the white part with red ink. You can use any color ink but we chose red because my client likes red. Using the dauber or you can use an old kitchen sponge, a wadded up piece of tissue (preferable clean) or even your finger if you don't mind having a red finger, smudge the edge of the paper with the ink. It's a great effect.



Next cut out the printed images ... as few or as many as your client wishes. On detailed images your client may need help. As you can see here my client is cutting around the image first to make it more manageable to cut. In the next photo she is starting to do more detailed work.

And here is the finished product. The flowers have been adhered using double sided tape. For your projects you may wish to use a glue stick or tape runner. As you can see this client is very talented and is able to do some fine, detailed work. For a client who isn't as capable, just find images that are larger and less detailed or better yet .... stamp them with stamps and inks!! I'll touch on stamping in another post.

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ETA (Edited to Add) - the original card posted has stamped images on the solid blue background. My talented client was being very creative and making her own printed background paper, with stamps and inks, while working on this project. I'll touch on stamping in another post.