50 Card Making Sketches » Card Making Techniques

The Perfect Envelope For Your Homemade Cards

Jen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:13:04 +0000

When we create homemade cards, most of us forget about the envelopes. We make stunning cards and then place them in a boring white envelope. But if we spend so much time creating a beautiful handmade card, doesn’t it only make sense that we would want to make the envelope look beautiful as well? After all, the envelope is the first thing that the receiver will see before they even open the card. Creating and decorating your own envelopes does not have to be difficult and can take as much or as little of your time as you desire.

Before we look into envelope decoration ideas, you must first know how to create an envelope. You could of course, decorate a regular white envelope, but if your card is an irregular shape or you just want to have some more fun, why not make your own?
Begin by placing your homemade card in the center of a piece of paper or cardstock. Choose any colour you like. Then fold each side of the paper inwards. Leave a small amount of space between the card and each fold of the paper to ensure that the envelope will be slightly larger than your card. Press firmly against the two side folds so that they lay flat. Do the same with the top folds.

Next, remove the card and flatten out the paper. At each corner of the paper, the creases should form a small square or rectangle. Carefully cut these off. At the bottom of each side piece, place a small dab of glue. Then, fold up the bottom piece so that it glues on. Now, select another piece of paper of the same color and cut out a small square that is slightly smaller than your envelope. Glue it on to the back of your envelope for a backpiece and voila! You are finished and can begin to decorate.

There are several ways that you can decorate an envelope. Use the same creativity to decorate your envelope that you used to create your homemade cards. Feel free to use markers, gel pens or scrapbooking embellishments to decorate your envelope. If you are sending your envelope through the mail, be sure that you don’t add anything too heavy that may fall off (like buttons). Many people like to decorate their envelopes with fancy writing, satin flowers, stickers or ribbon.

You could also use photographs. Next to the destination address, glue a small picture of the recipient. Similarly, next to your address add a small picture of you. If you have one, you can also add a picture of the two of you together.

When creating your own homemade cards, why not go all out and decorate your envelope as well? A decorated envelope will add uniqueness to your card that the recipient probably rarely sees. Not only that, but a uniquely decorated envelope will make the recipient excited to open it and see what is inside.

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Handmade Card Making Techniques Explained

Jen — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:52:17 +0000

When it comes to crafts such as scrapbooking and handmade greeting cards, there are a variety of different techniques that you can use. Each technique is designed to add a little bit of uniqueness to your craft. Let’s take a look at three of the most common greeting card techniques and explain what they are, as well as how to do them.

1) Embossing

Embossing is the process of creating an impression on your greeting card. It generally adds a bit of texture and when touched, you can feel that the area has been raised. In the process of embossing, stencils and stamps are used to raise sections of cardstock.

To emboss your image using a stamp, stamp your image onto a piece of paper using pigment ink or embossing ink. Then cover it with embossing powder immediately. After a few seconds, carefully tip all of the excess powder on to another sheet of paper. There should still be a great deal of powder that is stuck to your wet image. Pour all of your extra powder back into its container and remove any excess grains on your image using a small paintbrush.

Next, you will need to heat the image. It is generally recommended that you do this with the precision heating tool, but if that is not available hold your card over a hot toaster (face up) until the pattern melts and the image rises. Wait for your image to dry and voila! You are finished!

2) Distressing

Distressing is the technique through which you can give images or cards a classic, aged look. It is one of the simplest, most unique looking of all techniques. All you need to distress an image is some distressing ink and a piece of cotton. Place the image you want to distress on top of a blank sheet of paper. Then dab down a piece of cotton in your distressed ink and gently dab around the edges of your image or card. This will make it look aged. To add extra effect, crumple up your paper and add small dabs of ink here and there.

3) Eyelets

If you don’t know what an eyelet is, think of a pair of shoes. An eyelet is the part of the shoe that you thread the shoelace through. Now you may be thinking, how on earth did those get into the world of card making? Eyelets are commonly used to attach tags to cards for the simple reason that ribbons and lace can easily be thread through them. Using eyelets is simple but you will need an eyelet setter.

To add an eyelet to your card, insert a small hole where you would like it to be placed (matching the size of the eyelet). Insert the eyelet and turn the card over. Using your eyelet setter, find a tip that matches the size. Enter this into the hole and apply a firm pressure to set it into place.

So there you have it. These are a few of the most basic and popular card making techniques. Begin with these techniques and then move on to some of the many others out there as you become more advanced.

The Original Post is Located Here: Handmade Card Making Techniques Explained

Eyelets In Card Making

Jen — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:54:12 +0000

Eyelets are a great embellishment for using in your card making ideas. They are inexpensive, easy to apply and look fantastic.

If you aren’t sure what an eyelet is, they are small metal embellishments with a hole through the middle. Traditionally, they are round, but thanks to the explosion of the papercraft industry, they now come in a wide range of colours, sizes and shapes.

You can use them to attach other items to your card, or as an embellishment as themselves.

To attach, you will need an eyelet setter, a relatively inexpensive tool available from most major craft stores.

Exactly what you need to do to attach your eyelet depends on the tool you use. The basic idea though, is that you punch a small hole in the material you are applying the eyelet to. You then put the eyelet in place and turn it upside down (so the top of the eyelet is now in contact with your desk and you are looking at the underside). You then use your eyelet setting tool to lock it in place. It’s very simple.

Once you know how to set eyelets, you won’t be able to resist using them on lots of your card making projects. Here are just a few uses for eyelets you might like to try.

1. Use round eyelets for the center of flowers.

2. Place them in the corners of your card or rectangular embellishment.

3. Place one at each end of your card and thread a ribbon through them.

4. Place them in a line to create a border down one side of your card.

5. Place them in a line to underline your title or sentiment.

6. Create a cake or cupcake embellishment from paper and use eyelets to create the sprinkles.

7. Use them as a substitute for buttons. For example, if you create a snowman embellishment, instead of buttons down his front, you could use eyelets.

8. Create a pizza embellishment from paper and use eyelets to create the toppings.

9. Use them as dots and spots. For example, if you create a ladybug embellishment, use black eyelets to create the spots on its back.

These are just some of literally hundreds of different things you can create for your card making projects using eyelets. Give them a go and see what you can create!

The Original Post is Located Here: Eyelets In Card Making