Ideas for Making Your Own Greeting Cards

While it may be easy to just run out the store and grab a premade greeting card, making your own handmade greeting cards can be a great way to show that you care and to give someone in your life something unique and special. Greeting cards are quite easy to make and can be personalized and customized in any number of ways. Here are some ideas to get you started on making your own handmade greeting cards.

Probably the most important element of a greeting card is the paper. While you can make greeting cards out of construction paper, the ideal paper for making your own greeting cards is card stock. Card stock is thicker, heavier and provides more strength to your card. Card stock can be purchased in a variety of colors either at your local print shop or craft store. If you plan to make a lot of greeting cards you may want to consider purchasing a bulk pack in multiple colors to give you a nice variety to choose from.

Once you have your card stock you will need to decide how large you want your greeting card to be. If you don’t want to cut the papers you can just fold it in half and make and large greeting card. For smaller greeting cards you can cut it down to a smaller size. The best way to cut cards is using an Exacto knife or razor blade since it will give you the cleanest edge on your paper.

If you want to print anything on your greeting card using your computer printer it is a good idea to do it before you fold the card. Keep in mind when printing that the card will be folded in half so you need to only print text on half of the card. Most printing programs allow you to adjust the size of the paper so that it will print correctly onto your card even if you have cut the paper to an irregular size. You can choose either to print only on the outside of the card and add your own handwritten message to the inside of the card, or you can print both the outside and inside of the card.

Once you have printed any text or greetings on your card stock that you desire you will need the fold the card in half. When you fold the card you will want to make sure that the crease is very deep and flat. You can run a pencil over the crease to flatten it further.

The fun part of making greeting cards is decorating them. Many people think that greeting cards are just flat however there a variety of items and even small objects that you can use to decorate your cards. You can use a glue stick to attach other small bits of paper that you’ve cut out into interesting shapes. Or you can use punches, specialty papers or stickers to make your cards more interesting. You can also cut out parts of the front of your card to show elements on the inside when it is folded.

One of the most beautiful handmade greeting cards I ever received was made on lovely pale green card stock. The person who had made it cut a small square hole in the center of the card using a razor blade. Under the hole on the inside of the card they had glued a small delicate silk flower. When the card was closed the flower showed through hole in the front of the card. Then they had glued a pretty ribbon across the front of the card and added some beautiful handwritten lettering to personalize the card.

To get the best and most interesting greeting cards use your imagination and try some new things. One of the great things about making greeting cards is that they are inexpensive to make so you can try a variety of different ideas without breaking the bank. Most importantly, have fun!