How To Make Handmade Greeting Card

Tired of spending too much money on impersonal, store-bought greeting cards? Making your own handmade greeting cards is about more than just saving money. Giving someone a personalized birthday, graduation, anniversary or holiday card makes the occasion that much more special. They make excellent thank-you cards, Christmas cards, and great invitations for your wedding, shower or party. In this series of free instructional arts and crafts videos, you’ll learn tips on how to make your own handmade greeting cards with envelopes. Expert Heather McCanna teaches you techniques on making various types and styles of greeting cards, including money cards, pop-up cards, vertical and horizontal cards, and demonstrates how to create your own brightly colored moving character card to add fun to the festivities.

These cards use left over fabric scraps and rubber stamping to create a one-of-a-kind look for cards.

Using the same 3 folded kind of note-card as we mentioned above, cut a shape out of the middle of the card.

Your imagination is your only limit on what you could make, but cutting a triangle makes an adorable Christmas tree.

Next choose a small fabric scrap that will adequately cover the triangle and using small pieces of double stick tape cover the wrong side of the cardso that the right side of the fabric fills the triangle.

Set your sewing machine on a zig zag stitch and working on the top, stitch all the way around the triangle on the card. Don't forget to backstitch!

Follow the instructions above for gluing the flap closed to nicely finish the raw fabric side. the rest of the card can easily be decorated using rubber stamping supplies to add stars on the side of the tree -- or holiday greetings are also available on rubber mounted stamps for creating the inside of the card as well.

DIMENSIONAL CARDS

This kind of card uses embellished die cuts that are mounted on springs to add movement and whimsy to your card. You will need a regular folded note card, 5 inch long florist binding wire as well as acid free tape and glue for mounting.

You will also need several die-cuts of acid free paper.

Any scrapbook store and most craft stores will carry a wide variety of cut outs for you to choose from.

Layout your holiday design the way you want it to look. Go ahead and glue on any background pieces. Set aside a couple of main subjects in your layout to mount on springs.

To make a spring, wind a piece of wire tightly around a pencil and carefully slide it off the top leaving the wire coiled.

Attach one spring to the center of the subject on the wrong side and the other end to the card using acid free tape. One example is this...

POP-UP CARD

You will need:
2 - 8/1/2 x 11" pieces of cardstock
Scissors
Acid Free Glue
Embellishments

Step 1
Fold the papers in half and place the paper so the folded edge is on your left.

Step 2
Mark a large triangle on the bottom left hand corner. Starting from the folded edge to the triangle line, draw and cut a curved line.

Step 3
Fold along the triangle line between the cut and the point of the triangle. Fold the other direction along the same crease.

Step 4
Open the card and pull out the cut middle pop out piece towards you. Firmly crease the fold lines so that the pop-ip piece points towards you.

Step 5
Glue the inside and outside of the card together and decorate it.
This triangle pop up can be turned upside down and used as a vase filled with die-cut flowers or real dried flowers or turned into an angel.