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You are here: Home / Design / DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial

February 4, 2015 by Lindsey Bugbee 15 Comments
Filed Under: Design, Inspiration, Printable Goodies, Tutorials Tagged With: art, birthday card, birthday cards, card, cards, crayon, DIY, freebie, handmade, printable, tutorial, watercolor

Whenever I receive a handmade card from someone, I always feel so special. My greeting card philosophy, therefore, is most definitely “Do unto others …” However, it can be tough to come up with good greeting card ideas. Enter this blog post, which will clear up any creative block with its use of unconventional materials to make fun, unique cards that are truly fit for any occasion. Enjoy!

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DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

It dawned on me the other day that I don’t write about cards a lot. With the exception of the most recent TPK blog post, I mostly focus on envelopes — but not what to put inside! That realization is what brought this DIY greeting cards tutorial to life. In it, you will find four examples of different cards you can create. I hope that you’ll get inspiration from at least one of the cards; and while you’re at it, why not make a batch? It’s never a bad idea to have a few cards on hand!

1. The Junk Mail Card

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

The secret to any good DIY greeting card is the paper you use. It needs to be somewhat thick and substantial; card stock is ideal. You can find card stock for free in a somewhat unlikely place: your mailbox. My alma mater sent out the calendar below, which I kept because I had a hunch I would use it for a project. I am sure you have received something like this from someone/some entity as well!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

To transform a piece of paper like this into a card, simply fold it in half. I love using a bone folder to make a crisp, clean fold; sure, this particular tool didn’t make the TPK Top 10 List of Art Essentials, but it still makes life a lot easier! For detailed instructions on how to use a bone folder, refer to the Personalized Birthday Card tutorial.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Once you’ve folded the card, find yourself another piece of junk mail or random paper. I happened upon an airline ticket, so I opted to use that. Cut it into a piece of paper that has a width that’s around 3/4 the width of your folded card {the length doesn’t really matter}.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Now, fold the paper accordion-style. If you’re going, “Lindsey, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” right now, don’t worry! You can watch this tutorial on YouTube to get up to speed. I’d start the video at 0:45 and watch her fold; that’s exactly how you’ll do it, except of course your creases will be significantly closer together.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Once you’ve folded your paper, apply gentle, even pressure to it with your whole hand to get the folds to spread out a little bit. Basically, just press down until you like what you see. {You can skip this step, but I find that after folding, the folds are too close together for my taste.} Once you’ve got your accordion-style paper looking like you want it to, measure its length and width.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Add about 1/4″ inch {0.6 cm} to your measurement calculations for each side, then cut a plain piece of paper out that has the new measurements. Glue it to the center of your junk mail card. I drew around the paper with a black pen for emphasis, but that’s optional.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

At this point, you can draw in a design, if you’d like. I opted for a henna-inspired floral motif in the upper right and lower left corners.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Now, put glue on each spine of your accordion-folded paper, like so:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Glue the accordion-folded paper to the card, centering it on the paper in the middle.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

That’s it! You’ve just created a unique and versatile DIY greeting card that no one will suspect was born of the recycling bin!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

2. The Vintage Card

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

You will probably need to adapt this card to suit the materials that you have available to you; which is fine because it will look good using anything. I, personally, have a lot of old Reader’s Digest condensed edition books that I love to use for making cards.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Each book has a great title page that is made out of a pretty heavy paper … which, of course, is wonderful for making cards. It’s also delightfully faded because of its age!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

You’ll start by folding your card paper in half, regardless of what paper you are using.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Next, cut a long, thin strip of paper {I have chosen white}, and glue it in the middle of the card, like this:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

You can write or stamp whatever you’d like on the card; just make sure it has a right or a left orientation and doesn’t take up too much space!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Now, draw a floral motif like this one. If you want a shortcut on this step, you can download the one that I created by clicking here.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

You can color in the motif however you’d like! I have chosen to use wax crayons, which I sharpened with a cheapie plastic sharpener for precision.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Once the floral motif is colored in, cut it out. You don’t need to be precise; I actually like a little bit of white space between the illustration and the cut!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Here’s the part where you need to be resourceful: your goal is to find something that will give your flowers some leverage … something that you can use to sandwich between the flowers and the card to give them a 3D effect. For me, that “something” is a paper bubble-wrap package.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Cut out little squares of your material, and glue the squares to the back of your flowers, like so:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Put glue or double-stick tape to the back of your squares and affix the flowers/squares to your card, and that’s it! You now have a lovely, simple card that is perfect for any occasion, from birthdays to holidays to just because days.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

3. The {Ridiculously Simplistic} Butterflies Card

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

This card is the least time-consuming of the four cards I am showing you today. It will set you back all of five minutes, honestly. To make it, you’ll just need a folded piece of card stock; I have chosen black.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Next, pull out a magazine and choose a page that has an interesting pattern. I have chosen the diamond below because I know it will contrast well with the dark card stock. Draw a butterfly shape like this on that page, making sure you use a long, skinny rectangle for the butterfly’s body. Don’t worry about making the wings completely symmetrical; this card is appealing because of its DIY nature, and imperfections add personality!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Cut out your butterfly, and it will look something like this:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Fold each wing toward the other wing, making sure you create the fold crease where the wing meets the center {the long, skinny rectangle}. Do not fold or crease the center itself. Once you have done this, flip the butterfly over and put glue on the back of the butterfly’s “body”, like so:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Glue the butterfly to the card, then make a couple of friends for it.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Your card is done at this point, unless you’d like to add something else {a henna design, calligraphy, whatever}! When I send out this type of card, I slightly flatten the wings with my hand so the card will not catch on the envelope on its way in. I always include a little note to the recipient that the butterfly wings will perk up if they are gently squeezed together.

4. The Abstract Card

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

This particular design was inspired by artist Martha Lever’s Graffiti of My Life. I love the look of her “graffiti” — beautiful! To make your own abstract card, I’d recommend using 140 lb. watercolor paper. {It holds up well to a lot of water because of its low absorbency.} Paint a few random clouds and circles of different colors using watercolor, like this:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Next, put a couple of drops of gouache or acrylic paint on the puffy side of bubble wrap.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Use a brush to distribute the paint over the bubbles.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Double-check to make sure the watercolor on your card is dry. If it is, flip the plastic bubbles over and apply gentle, even pressure to apply paint to the card.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

You can use this technique for a couple of colors!

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

Once your paint dries, you can go over your design with a regular gel pen {as I have done} and do some stamping/embossing. It’s an abstract card, so what you do is completely up to you! This is just the route I went:

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

And that’s it! Ideas for four different cards that are unique, thoughtful, and will most definitely never see the recycling bin.

DIY Greeting Cards Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

If you create any these cards, I’d love to see your handiwork on Facebook or Instagram {#thepostmansknock or @thepostmansknock}! If you have any tips or ideas for cards, please share them in the comments! I am consistently impressed and inspired by your creativity, so I love to hear your input and advice. 🙂

Warmest wishes — and thank you again for reading the TPK blog!

Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock

Filed Under: Design, Inspiration, Printable Goodies, Tutorials Tagged With: art, birthday card, birthday cards, card, cards, crayon, DIY, freebie, handmade, printable, tutorial, watercolor
*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon

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Welcome to The Postman’s Knock

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designer + illustrator + calligrapher

The Postman's Knock is a blog focused on teaching creative techniques and offering guides to learning modern calligraphy and illustration. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!

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15 Comments

Leave a Comment

  1. titanium backup apk says

    August 18, 2018 at 3:23 am

    +wwjoshdew thanks so much. i bought the pro version and it was worth it!!

    Reply
  2. Arv says

    January 12, 2018 at 10:04 pm

    Like your 3-D effect! Handmade greeting cards are truly personal and meaningful. Unlike store-bought cards, they are cherished and treasured.

    Another way to create beautiful DIY cards is to scan old photos with Pic Scanner Gold app. The app also provides 100+ mostly free templates of greeting cards for all occasions (also calendars), so you can make and send e-Cards with e.g. childhood photos of friends or family you are greeting! Find it on the App Store: itunes.apple.com/app/id1124131441.

    Reply
  3. Finchley Trading says

    August 31, 2017 at 2:25 am

    I thanks so much for this! This post is extremely helpful and inspiring

    Reply
  4. Meredith says

    February 22, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    The best part about these is that they can be a gift all in themselves – my mom has been trying to move and is getting rid of as much of her stuff as she can. For the past few years, she hasn’t really wanted anything for her birthday/Christmas/etc. because it would just clutter up the house. BUT she loves it when I make her a card or a pretty quote: she keeps them up on her bookshelves in her room.

    So, even if I am almost 23 years old, Mama still loves to show off her kids’ art.

    Reply
    • Meredith says

      February 22, 2015 at 7:02 pm

      Also I still need to figure out what to do with all the note card packs I keep impulse-buying

      Reply
      • Lindsey Bugbee says

        February 28, 2015 at 9:15 pm

        Decorate them and send a couple my way! 🙂

        Reply
  5. Stella says

    February 10, 2015 at 8:05 am

    Lindsey, you always have something interesting to teach us every time, I really like how you use the paper bubble wrap this time, I never thought of using it these ways especially the 3D effect, it’s easy and much better than using paper itself! Thank You for lots of useful tips and inspirations, all the time. 🙂

    Reply
    • Lindsey Bugbee says

      February 15, 2015 at 5:45 am

      Sometimes a girl’s gotta get resourceful! I usually just look around the house and try to figure out what I could use in order to accomplish X or Y. Sometimes, my hodge-podge solutions fail, but sometimes they work — as in this case. 😉 Thank you!!

      Reply
  6. Lisa Jones says

    February 5, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    Thanks Lindsey – I agree; I don’t buy cards anymore – why pay $6 for some commercial cr*p when you can make your own artworks for much less? Thanks for the great ideas. I love using gelli printed papers with stamps.

    Reply
    • Lindsey Bugbee says

      February 9, 2015 at 7:21 pm

      I completely agree! I try to make cards in batches so I always have one ready for unexpected occasions {e.g. a birthday that has snuck up on me, or a thank you!}. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Sally Wood Rastogi says

    February 5, 2015 at 12:37 pm

    Lovely! I especially love the floral (big surprise) and the abstract cards. So fun!

    Reply
    • Lindsey Bugbee says

      February 9, 2015 at 7:21 pm

      You? Like florals? 😉 Thank you!

      Reply
  8. Jo says

    February 5, 2015 at 9:54 am

    Another great post, Lindsey. You are so generous with your creative ideas. Thank you so much!

    Reply
    • Lindsey Bugbee says

      February 9, 2015 at 7:20 pm

      No, thank you for reading! I’m really glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

      Reply

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