Holiday Card Tutorial
If you plan to send a lot of cards out for the winter holidays you likely know that beautiful, handmade cards are expensive, and cheap cards tend to be, well, cheap-looking. This year I decided to overcome both hurdles by making my own cards, which is also a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon, getting into the holiday spirit.
To make your holiday cards you will need: Cardstock printed with photos, or blank cards with your photos glued on; a pair of scissors, a pencil, washi tape, envelopes, and metallic Sharpies or similar felt-tipped pens.
I started by selecting two photos I’d taken last winter, and I had them printed at my local print shop. To make your cards you can either use your own photos (family photos would be very sweet), or you can download the print out I created for my cards. To use my print out, have the 11 x 17’’ document printed on cardstock, and then cut it into quarters – each quarter will measure 5.5 x 8.5’’ – fold these in half, and you have your basic card!
To neatly fold my cards I first ‘scored’ the line of the crease with a pair of scissors (click here for a visual demonstration). Next I used several different kinds of washi tape to create a frame effect around my photo. I left about 2mm of space between the photo and the tape, and for most of my cards I cut the tape in half length-wise to make narrower pieces that were more in proportion to my image size.
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You can leave the end of your washi tape blunt, or cut it with scissors for different effects; I liked the ribbon-effect I got by cutting a small triangle out of the tape end, or by cutting the tape on a diagonal.
