Anyone make their own greeting cards?

snorlax · 27-08-2005 6:04pm #1

just wondering if anyone makes them instead of buying them.

do you have any ideas for designs (websites etc), you own creations.

i v got a set of about 50 blank cards and envelopes and i v also got some textured paper, but im a bit short on the designs (eg simple and easy designs that won't take forever), anyone got any suggestions?

Bip · 30-08-2005 2:57pm

So nice to hear of someone wanting to avoid the complete waste of money that bought cards are... handmade ones are so much better and personal and worth keeping! As for what to put on them.. the sky is the limit! Calligraphy is quite easy to pick up with a bit of practise and really nice on the outside of a card.. embossing is also really simple and effective, if you have a couple of rubber stamps, embossing powder lasts for ages... otherwise any type of drawing or collage is nice.. it really is the thought and effort that counts though and not your artistic ability! hope this was a little bit helpful!

Bip · 30-08-2005 2:59pm

* celtic designs drawn with a thin marker and filled in with paint afterwards are lovely too... books full of templates are in most good bookshops!

djmarkus · 30-08-2005 3:09pm

I use hallmark card studio, about 500 card designs for every occasion

snorlax · 30-08-2005 4:48pm

is that a computor program? how much is it Dj?

Larianne · 30-08-2005 4:55pm

I use to make a lot of greeting cards when I was younger. For christmas, birthdays, easter, St. Patrick's Day or if someone was sick. My mam would send them to her friends all over the world.

It depend on the occasion and I'd go from there. Mostly be just drawings or cartoons. I used to draw a deadly cartoon St. Patrick. hehe Also, sticked pressed flowers on to card as well and then put that plastic covering ya use for school books over it to keep it. They were really nice.

Then other times just made collages with different coloured and textured paper. Add some glitter, twine, ribbon whatever, you name it!! I'd stick it on.

snorlax · 30-08-2005 5:06pm

i tried to press flowers and it was a complete disaster, i put it out the back (and i of course forgot about it for a month!), none the less i found the flowers crawling with woodlice when i checked up on it again and the woodlice had eatten through the flowers. it certainely must be a good time fo the year for picking flowers for pressing though.

any tips for pressing flowers Larianne that would save me buying a kit, i think they'd be a lovely idea for a card! hmm to get a pressed red rose in the post on valentines would be nice

................!

iv got some textured paper i picked up a whole A4 size book of it (about 50 sheets) from reads for about 2.50eur and it 's funny cos elsewhere they can charge up to1/2euro per A5 size/or for smaller sheets. so your best going to reads, or else buying a massive A2 size sheet for 2.50 (they also selling eygptian style paper for about 2-4 eur an A2 size sheet in inspiring ideas, good if you wanted to make a whole load of them with similiar/ colours/ designs.)

Larianne · 30-08-2005 5:18pm

well although I did have two, yes two! pressing kits

ya can do it without them.

Just get an old book and line the pages with thick card, so you don't ruin and pages and also coz it will help soak up any mositure from the flower.
Place the flower in the book however you want the petals to be pressed, ya can move them around, bend them etc. and then whallop the book closed! If you got some heavy bulky books like encylopedias lying around use a few of them to press down the pages of the book. Put it in a cool, dry place so it will help the flowers dry out as well. i don't think you have to leave them for a month. As Neil says "go on, try it yourself.."

It should work. But ya can buy cheapo pressing kits. I got one in a stationary set for kids a few years back. Ya know the ones where is has design your own envelopes and cards and ya get stickers and stuff like that. And wasn't expensive. Got it in Roches I think. BUt try the DIY way.

Larianne · 30-08-2005 5:33pm

Also, stuff like making mini pictures and then sticking them onto a card. Like cutting a small square of watercolour paper (god I love this paper!!) and drawing or painting a little picture, like a landscape or whatever and sticking it on some coloured card, so the card then frames the little pic. Or you could do something like a bunch of flowers and stick a ribbon onto the picture.

People love these types of cards. And appreciate them so much more because you've gone to the effort of thinking about them and making the card!

jellie · 30-08-2005 5:40pm

Larianne wrote:

Just get an old book and line the pages with thick card, so you don't ruin and pages and also coz it will helpsoak up any mositure from the flower.
.

Try old phonebooks

snorlax · 30-08-2005 5:41pm

great ideas there, thanks a million Larianne

!

Larianne · 30-08-2005 5:50pm

Just mess around with different materials. Keep like a little box (mine's turned into a BIG box) of materials- string, glitters, sequins, paper, magazine cutting, pasta shapes, wires, beads etc and have a rummage in there when you wanna make a card or have an idea for one.

Also good to keep a journal with ideas in it. Little sketches and colour swatches etc. So if you don't have the time to do something with your idea, you can always go back to it. Goes for anything you wanna create - cards, paintings, jewellery etc. You can get good hardback journals from Read at a good price.

TipGal · 01-09-2005 12:59pm

always have done since I was about 8 years old! my mother was really into arts and crafts so my brother and I always made cards..can't remember ever buying a card. I always sketch and drawer little cards for different occassions as they are much more meaningful. I often cross stitch my cards as well as I design and sell cross stitch patterns from my website www.celticobsessions.com - my husband used to complain about me being too cheap to buy a card so one year I bought a card and he hated it. He said 'oh but why didn't you make me a card' I said he never liked it but he just said that he did love it..he was just being silly! My son who is 10 months old also made his daddy a card as I drew around his hand and put it on the card with some scribbles on it...hubby was chuffed!

smileygal · 06-09-2005 12:26pm

I save a fortune by making cards, and make them all year round so always have a stock.

I have recently found good stuff for kid's birthday cards (little wooden frogs that stick on ) in Hickey's Fabrics, whose range is improving a lot.

Talliesin · 06-09-2005 12:37pm

Yule before last I helped my eldest (4yo at the time) make some. Probably not as elaborate as what people are thinking of here, but a cool thing to do with kids as the holidays approach.

snorlax · 08-09-2005 8:55pm

Talliesin wrote:

Yule before last I helped my eldest (4yo at the time) make some. Probably not as elaborate as what people are thinking of here, but a cool thing to do with kids as the holidays approach.

simple is often the most effective. what kind of design did you use Talliesin? i love the celtic designs, like the triskele etc, eg using a black calligraphy pen on handmade/ textured paper

cuckoo · 09-09-2005 2:53am

I cut little cartoons out of magazines and newspapers (the glossy mags that come with weekend papers are my favourite source, especially the 'missing vowels' one panel ones that i can't remember what paper, i think the observer), and stick them onto the front of a card. I match the cartoon to the person, like a techie friend will get a cartoon about tech support or the like.

I wish i had the drawing skills to create cartoons myself, but my skills in this regard are limited to scissors and glue.

Hells_Belle · 09-09-2005 2:06pm

OK, I absolutely HATE buying cards because they're just so industrial and meaningless. Of course, I'm trapped into sending them because people expect them for absolutely everything (I could buy my best friend a BMW for her birthday and she'd still be offended if the keys came without a card...) so I'd like to have a go at making my own. I'm pretty crafty so I reckon I'd do quite well.

Can anyone suggest a place to get card blanks and matching envelopes? I'd use reams of 160gsm paper but I am a stationary fanatic and the card must match the envelope. Oh, unless the envelope is coloured, I guess... hmm.

Anyway, how can i join your crafty card making ranks with a source for basic supplies?

snorlax · 09-09-2005 4:12pm

the art and hobby shop have a good selection at the moment, mainly cream and blues.

also evans ( at the very back of the shop on the right) sells cards and matching envelopes in various colours, i think theyr around 25-40 cent each.

Talliesin · 10-09-2005 7:01pm

snorlax wrote:

simple is often the most effective. what kind of design did you use Talliesin?

Well, given that I was helping a 4 year old to do it, I cut out some holly and yule-tree shapes from green paper and then let her stick them onto the card and draw on tinsel and baubles with glitter pens.

Mothman · 10-09-2005 10:06pm

For past couple years we have been making cards from water paintings that my now 3yo has done.
She's given red, blue & yellow paints, does some fantastics painting and we cut some of them up to make cards.

Hells_Belle · 11-09-2005 1:29pm

snorlax wrote:

the art and hobby shop have a good selection at the moment, mainly cream and blues.

also evans ( at the very back of the shop on the right) sells cards and matching envelopes in various colours, i think theyr around 25-40 cent each.

OK, thanks. Sorry to be dense but I've just moved here and I don't know my elbow from my... Anyway, are these chain stores? I mean, would I expect to find them in Cork?

I did find some really nice coloured envelopes at the co-op yesterday, by the way - 100% recycled. So if anyone wants to work with enviro-friendly materials, your local co-op may be a place to find them

snorlax · 11-09-2005 2:45pm

the art and hobby shops are chain stores so im sure you will be able to find them. here's a link for their website: http://www.artnhobby.ie/locations.htm#CK (and their opening times).

how much did you get the envelopes and cards for in your co-op? i got 50 cards and 50 envelopes for 10euro in the art and hobby shop, the paper is semi decent quality( eg wouldn't be good for heavy duty glue/ painting as the gsm isn't that high but suitable for using pritstick/ crayons/ charcoal etc).

im actually trying to come up with a prototype design for them right now, and hope fully then i can use them for Christmas/ birthdays etc.

snorlax · 11-09-2005 2:49pm

also here's link to the type of blank cards the art and hobby shop retail

http://www.docrafts.com/asp/product/searchResults.asp?cboProjectType=4

(the ones i got there were a cheaper variety but these ones have a higher gsm so they'd be more suitauable for using with glue etc)

and here's a link to some of the designs if anyone needs some inspiration, although some of them look alittle complicated
http://www.docrafts.com/asp/project/searchResultsSubType.asp?cboProjectSubType=11

smileygal · 12-09-2005 7:57am

Hells_Belle wrote:

OK, thanks. Sorry to be dense but I've just moved here and I don't know my elbow from my... Anyway, are these chain stores? I mean, would I expect to find them in Cork?

I did find some really nice coloured envelopes at the co-op yesterday, by the way - 100% recycled. So if anyone wants to work with enviro-friendly materials, your local co-op may be a place to find them

Welcome to Cork!

Art & Hobby Shops in
Wilton Shopping Centre & Douglas Court Shopping Centre
Don't know if in Blackpool S.C.

&
Eason's
Read's
Cork Arts Supplies

Which co-op did you get your stuff in?

Hells_Belle · 12-09-2005 1:08pm

smileygal wrote:

Welcome to Cork!
Eason's
Read's
Cork Arts Supplies

Oh, cool, thanks... now I just have to find Read's and Cork Art Supplies - Eason's is easy to find

Which co-op did you get your stuff in?

Ummmm.... I crossed a bridge near the English Market end of Oliver Plunkett Street, turned right, and it was on the first corner and had a veggie restaurant upstairs. That's all I know

smileygal · 13-09-2005 12:14pm

The Quay Co-op it is. Was thinking agri co-ops!!

Read's in Cork is only about 5 doors up from Eason's, same side, towards river, is oppposite Marks & Spencer.

Cork Arts Supplies is on the South Mall end of Princes St, the street that runs from Oasis to South Mall). It's a navy blue shopfront.

snorlax · 13-09-2005 2:53pm

just got a stick of glue for only 1.45eur in reads/ Dublin, Pritstick was priced 4.75eur for the exact same quantity, the glue's quite good for sticking cardboard etc, look what i made with it (what do you all think by the way:D? i need to come with a good font to go with it)

Larianne · 13-09-2005 7:17pm

snorlax wrote:

just got a stick of glue for only 1.45eur in reads/ Dublin, Pritstick was priced 4.75eur for the exact same quantity, the glue's quite good for sticking cardboard etc, look what i made with it (what do you all think by the way:D? i need to come with a good font to go with it)

Looks good, be good though to get a closer look at the detail. What's the occasion for the card or is it a randomer? What the green paper made from, handmade is it?

snorlax · 14-09-2005 10:55am

it was kind of a randomer, i was just in a really arty mood yesterday.

i just used a technical pen and colouring pencils to do the goldencups (they'r quite hard to see in that photo), the only problem with the card i think i should have made the green bit a bit bigger as it looks alittle lost in porportion to the card.

it's always good to practise doing a few ones anyway before you come up with a good design, i was also considering using watercolour pencils instead of the regular ones.

Bamboozled · 14-09-2005 2:29pm

Hells_Belle wrote:

OK, thanks. Sorry to be dense but I've just moved here and I don't know my elbow from my... Anyway, are these chain stores? I mean, would I expect to find them in Cork?

I did find some really nice coloured envelopes at the co-op yesterday, by the way - 100% recycled. So if anyone wants to work with enviro-friendly materials, your local co-op may be a place to find them

There's a new Art and Hobby store opening in Ballincollig in case you cant find what you want anywhere else.

There's also an art and craft type shop in the Wilton Shopping Centre.

Might save you having to get into the crazy place that is the city centre.

Anyone make their own greeting cards?

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