Making heartfelt, decorative handmade greeting cards for your friends and loved ones is one of the simplest design ideas for any holiday. With simple elements and a pinch of creativity, you can create a unique and unforgettable card for any occasion. By reading the first step you will learn how to make basic cards, then you will learn to add decorations to the cards you have already made and to write a heartfelt, funny and sincere message inside.
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Adding the Details
Step 1. Add dried flowers, shells or other decorations
Most of the decorations are added to the outside of the card. Choose a theme depending on the occasion, the season or the person the ticket is reserved for.
- The dried flowers, which you will gently glue onto the card, represent a truly stunning and stunning 3D spring decoration: they embellish the card with a natural light of color. It's a great idea to be reserved for people with green thumbs.
- You can even add seashells to your spring cards for a truly unique touch. It works especially with cards that accompany gifts and with other types of postcards or place cards.
Step 2. To add a simple touch to your greeting cards, make a collage of pictures or photos
Look for pictures in old school books, children's books, newspapers and magazines. They are an inexhaustible source of images for your cards. If you don't have any at home, go to a thrift shop or a stationery shop and get a pile of old newspapers and magazines to buy cheaply (even better if they give them to you): you can recycle the photos and drawings for your your greeting cards.
- Nature magazines and advertising-filled magazines are where you find the best images for your cards. The color contrasts of the advertisements give a great effect to the greeting card.
- For even greater savings, salvage old postcards and old cards and cut out shapes and designs to reuse for your new cards. Recycle old Christmas cards by cutting out images of the nativity scene and Christmas tree and glue them onto the card you are creating. Nobody will notice the difference and you will save money.
Step 3. If you can, add an original self-made design to your card
You don't need to be a great artist to make cute designs on greeting cards. Depending on who the card is for, a simple comic stick figure or a diagram of your feelings will make a fun and hilarious gift for an anniversary or any other special occasion. And if you are good at drawing, even better. Embellish the cards with your personal artistic creations, to give an original touch that your family and friends will love.
Step 4. Go for elegance and simplicity
Adding just a few tasteful ornaments to your card is better than doing something too busy or too full of decorations. A simple white card with a dried flower in the center will look gentle and elegant and be the best gift to give to a loved one.
Avoid making a collage with too many images. All it takes is a couple of well-assembled images from a magazine or book to create a touching, cute or hilarious card. Don't clutter the card with fifty pictures of your friend's favorite soccer player. maybe just a photo, with the right caption, is enough to create a nice effect card. With a few things you can do a lot
Step 5. Don't be afraid to make fancy or extravagant cards
funny and quirky greeting cards are usually more popular than serious, grave ones. Small jokes, nonsense or weird images of sea creatures can rightfully enter the art of making greeting cards.
- Have your family members never heard of the Hanukkah squid? It's time to rejuvenate traditions. Create an idyllic holiday scene with billowing clouds of squid wearing Santa hats and marked "Happiness". The more meaningless the ticket, the better.
- Making extravagant cards doesn't mean you have to send a serious one to celebrate your mother-in-law's anniversary or a hilarious one to express condolences to someone, it means creating a card that the recipient will be able to appreciate. By knowing his sense of humor, you can get him a smile.
Part 2 of 4: Making the Basic Tickets
Step 1. Get good quality cardstock
Cards, as the name suggests, are perfect for making greeting cards. It is basically thick, high-quality paper that you can buy at any office supply store or stationery shop, in a wide variety of prints and vibrant colors. Depending on the type of card you want to make, you may want to use a couple of different colors, overlapping them to create a cute effect.
To make a card that looks both eye-catching and professional, you typically use two different varieties of complementary colors for each card. After cutting out different shapes and sizes of cardstock (one small and one large), glue the smaller piece evenly into the center of the larger one to create a unique look. By folding it, it forms a very nice surface on which you can write your message. You can also use plain printer paper as the inside sheet, to avoid overly increasing the volume of the card
Step 2. Prepare all the necessary materials
Depending on the type of card you want to create, you will probably need:
- Glue or glue stick.
- Fine point pens.
- Scissors.
- Photographs or newspaper clippings.
- A ruler.
- Any other decorations you want to add.
Step 3. Cut out the basic shape of the card
Once you have selected the color of the card to use as the exterior of the card, cut it to the right size. A standard-sized, rectangular-shaped birthday card measures approximately 5 x 7 cm when folded in half. Since you haven't folded it yet, use the ruler to measure a square approximately 10 x 14cm and cut it out very carefully with scissors. If you want the edge to be as straight as possible, cut it out with a utility knife if you have one.
- At this point, cut out a piece of cardboard of a different color. This piece needs to be a bit smaller (two to three centimeters on each side) and needs to be glued in the center of the larger outer piece. Glue it firmly with the glue stick and let it dry completely before folding it in half.
- You can do the same thing on the other side of the card as well, so you have an original design surface both inside and out. Indulge yourself in trying different shapes and positions depending on the season, your style and your mood.
- You can cut out diamonds or other shapes from the inner cardboard to add an extra touch of style. A snowflake would be perfect for a winter card, a heart would be good for Valentine's Day cards.
Step 4. Carefully fold the cardstock in half
Make a neat and neat fold, then place the card under a heavy book to make it as flat as possible and to perfect the fold. Once this is done, you are ready to write your message inside and decorate it!
Step 5. Alternatively, you can opt for a postcard, thus avoiding the complication of having to fold the card
Simply cut out a piece of card stock of the right size and decorate it on one side, leaving the other side free for a personal message, address and postage. Easier than that…!
Part 3 of 4: Write the Message
Step 1. Write a simple, short, heartfelt message on your card
There is no need to write a long and complicated message to make it effective. On the inside of the card, write a message of a few sentences, sign it and send it to the recipient. If you've been thinking about making an original birthday card, there's no need to include a verbose message. "Merry Christmas" is more than enough for a Christmas card.
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For a birthday card, you are allowed to use your sense of humor to write a greeting: "Happy birthday, old man!" it can be fun for your dad or brother, but not necessarily for your boss! For informal but sincere messages, here are some suggestions:
- One-hundred of these days. Keep yourself young, my friend.
- Happy birthday: one more year on the rump!
- Happy birthday!
- I am proud to be your friend. Happy birthday!
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For a romantic card, write sweet and kind messages but don't overdo it. Some simple but romantic messages:
- You mean a lot to me. I love you.
- I am happy to be able to spend this special day with you. I love you.
- I'm mad about you. Now and forever.
- I'm glad you like me more than you like your dog. With love.
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For a condolence card, it is above all essential to be simple and sincere:
- In this difficult time, I am next to you.
- My thoughts are on you.
- Sorry for your loss.
Step 2. If you don't know what to write, use a quote
It is perfectly normal and appropriate to use a quote on a greeting card, especially for religious holidays. If you feel stuck and can't think of the right message to write, feel free to use a quote and let someone else speak for you, or opt for an extremely simple message: "Merry Christmas", "Happy Birthday", " Condolences".
Bible verses are especially appropriate for Easter or Christmas cards, but they can be a little slicked up on other occasions. If you know the recipient, you will be able to choose the most appropriate message
Make Cards Step 13 Step 3. Don't be afraid to be too extravagant
If you know that your friend is capable of appreciation, free your imagination and your comic streak and take the opportunity to write a funny message. Here are some options:
- "Your birthday isn't a good reason to drink alone and get depressed about how old you're getting, but really old. That's why we're going out together tonight."
- "Happy non-denominational winter holiday. All praise goes to octopus Paul."
- "I drew a mustache on Captain Kirk for your birthday because I know you're a time waster. Happy birthday."
Step 4. Rather than writing too long a message on the card, add a letter
If you have a lot to say and want to catch up with someone you haven't seen in a long time, send a separate letter and reserve a shorter message for the greeting card. Tickets are more welcome if they don't have an excessively long message in them. If you want to write several paragraphs to update family or friends about your life and adventures, add a letter to the card.
Part 4 of 4: Making Special Occasion Cards
Step 1. For the holidays, send out birthday cards
During the winter holidays of Christmas or New Year or on the occasion of Hanukkah, it is very common to write personalized cards and send them by mail to friends and relatives, to keep in touch with them. You can include a recent photo of yourself from your family, especially to satisfy the curiosity of those relatives you don't get to see often. The end of the year is a good time to connect with family and friends and to let everyone know about the things you have done and are thinking about them.
- Include a recent photo of your family, along with a short note of the most significant things you have done during the year. To make things easier, make several copies of a basic card, write a standard formula that is the same for everyone, but also add a short, personalized handwritten message to each.
- If you want to write a note reviewing the past year, choose the right tone. Avoid writing a litany with all the destinations on your American tour, especially if the recipients are relatives who cannot travel. Rather, write: "This year I had the good fortune and pleasure of taking a few trips." Likewise, a holiday card shouldn't become an opportunity to depress everyone in the family with a list of the things that went wrong for you over the course of the year. Stay optimistic. It's about holidays.
Make Cards Step 16 Step 2. Send a card on the occasion of the birth of a child
If you have just had a baby, you are probably very busy. But if you have the time to create personalized cards, add an original touch such as a child's fingerprint or a photograph of him: it will be an exciting welcome gift for your friends and loved ones.
Step 3. Send greeting cards every season, just because you want to
They are usually sent more frequently in winter. But why not send them also in spring or summer? Why is it too hot? Stand out from the crowd and send your cards to friends simply because you are thinking about them, as often as you see fit.
Choose special holidays (Women's Day, Wine Festival, Film Festival and so on) and overturn established habits and customs by sending greeting cards on these occasions as well
Step 4. Send a birthday card to someone who may need it
Think of someone you know well or barely know, but who has been feeling down in the dumps lately. Receiving an unexpected birthday card is more comforting for someone than receiving an expensive gift or other token of affection. Sending a birthday card to someone in need of comfort is always a great idea.
Advice
- If you can deliver your card personally, make it even more affectionate and show how much you care about that person. It is clearly not possible to do this if the person lives too far away.
- Create colorful and attractive cards. It has to be something that deserves to be kept.
- It can be fun to create them together with your children or while you are caring for your baby.
