Making cards?

nabowla

I thought I'd have a go at making birthday cards in order to save a few pennies. Has anyone here done this? Where do you get your card kits from? Some of the kits I've seen are really expensive. What about websites and/or catalogues - any good? If anyone knows of a company that does card stuff and cheap (but expensive looking) wrapping paper, that would be fantastic!

madmummy_2

I've been making my own cards for around 2 years now so I can give you the benefit of my experience.

Kits can be expensive, but that's not always the case. Work out the price per card and decide if you're happy with it. Personally I don't buy if it's more than £1 per card.

You will probalby find a craft shop on your High Street somewhere - you'd be surprised what you find once you start looking! The web has loads of sites for buying stuff. I suggest you start at Lakeland because they have a good selection at reasonable prices. www.lakeland.co.uk
Other sites are:
www.clares-crafts.co.uk
www.themulberry-bush.com
www.madaboutcards.com
www.imag-e-nation.co.uk

If you want ideas try www.hobbycraft.co.uk. If you want ideas and a cardmaking board try www.docrafts.co.uk. The board is really good with loads of experience crafters who will give some answers.

There are many magazines out there now too all carrying ideas and projects. Try www.crafts-beautiful.com or www.craftcreations.com for starters but there are loads of others.

Card crafting can be very expensive and very addictive so don't say I doidn't warn you. Having said that, there is nothing better than seeing the faces of people when they open the cards you've made just for them.

Enjoy and if need any more help or have any more questions, I'll be around. Just shout or pm me.

juno

If you have the QVC channel on your TV, they sometimes have "crafting days" where they show you how to do everything. You don't have to buy from them, as they might be a bit expensive

Party_Animal

Put crafts in the search engine on EBAY. There are loads. I've used them to buy pressies for Mrs PA. A lot of the stuff arrives the next day. If you order more than one thing they combine the postage.

Austin_Allegro

If you have a computer, you can make personalised birthday cards - I've done ones for friends using pictures of their favourite films stars etc. You can get quite creative - add personalised text or speech bubbles from the film stars giving 'personal' messages etc.

All you need to do is create a landscape document in Word or similar. Divide it up into four quadrants, either using on screen guides or estimating. On the bottom right quadrant, this will be the front of the card. Paste your downloaded or scanned images and text. The upper left quadrant is the inside of the card. Here you can paste your greeting, but you'll have to paste the text box upside down.

Print off the card, and fold it in half horizontally then in half again vertically, giving you a card with the pic on the front and the greeting inside. You may need to trial and error this a few times. You don't need special paper.

elona

If you can get to a Boyes shop then they have card making materials at a very good price such as card, silver or gold decorations and greetings that can just be stuck on a card and look really good.

My 15 year old daughter did this for Christmas and her friends loved it :):)

sans_2

Get ideas from visiting stationary/ card shops. Card in A5 sizes can be brought quite cheaply in bulk (sorry I forget the name of the shop :-( ). With so much packaging and junk mail these days there are often loads of different coloured bits of paper/ card you can reuse. You can make your own envelope by taking apart one and using that as a template (or buying them in bulk). What I also like doing is buying the odd card here and there when shops have their sales, Marks and Spencers often reduce their cards down to 50p or 25p which is worth buying to keep aside for the last minute birthdays etc for you haven't got time to make a card.

juno

The Works bookstore is closing down, so they have lots of things reduced to silly prices. I got an "easter craft set" for 25p. It had easter themed cut out card shapes, but then 10 sheets of really nice coloured card!

And I got a corrugated card making thing with some card for £2. But it looked like it was all holographic and then only the first sheet was

And they have some actual card sets which have some prefolded cards, envelopes and then things to stick on. I can't remember how much they were, but they had loads of different designs!

Loadsabob

Oh NO!!!!! I was hoping we'd one day get "The Works" down here...I've shopped there in Dorchester...do you mean the whole chain is closing? I've found them to be excellent for really good-name books too, not just the more general ones you often find in cheap book stores...

r.mac_2

hiya.

I make my own greetings cards and use Lakeland most of the time, ad another poster has already recommended. I buy the plain cards and a combination on 'bits' to make my own designs and kits when they are reduced in the sale.

I was lazy the last time a bought card making bits and peices and went for the plain cards and ready made toppers - some in the sale, some not. In total, I bought enough to make approximately 44 cards and they worked out at about 40p each maximum.

In the past I have used cards I have recieved as templates and made my own toppers - fiddly, but the results can be great and very cheap.

never managed to win what I wanted on ebay - and I find the postage can make things a bit more expensive.

Good luck

juno

Loadsabob wrote:

Oh NO!!!!! I was hoping we'd one day get "The Works" down here...I've shopped there in Dorchester...do you mean the whole chain is closing? I've found them to be excellent for really good-name books too, not just the more general ones you often find in cheap book stores...

I have no idea.

It does seem to be a nationwide thing, as the ones in Nottingham say closing down and the ones in York did too when I was up there. But they do seem to be taking a while about it.