Cardmaking for Beginners

Why make cards?

Making your own cards is great fun, it’s a brilliant way to express your creativity, it can be therapeutic and help you de-stress, it can lead to meeting new people both online and in real life and best of all the end result is a card that you can pass to a friend or family member to make them smile. What’s not to love!?

Is cardmaking cost effective?

Cardmaking doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby, but that being said the cardmaking and scrapbook industry is big business, just head to your local supermarket and you’ll see the array of magazines available (none as high quality as SC&P of course!)

Like many products we buy as a nation, the mass-produced greeting card industry can mean you can buy cards including envelopes from shops for as little as 50p! Making your own greeting cards can be cost effective but it entirely depends on what supplies you use and whether you bulk buy and take advantage of bargain offers.

Making a handmade card is so much more than the cost, it’s about the time, effort and the creative flair you put into it; that’s where the value comes and in many cases that kind of handmade card or gift, made especially for a family member or loved-one, is priceless.

We’ll also be looking at people who are planning to sell handmade cards to help pay for the cost of materials or to make money for charity later in this series, so keep a look out for our newsletter where we share all the latest blog posts. You can sign up to the newsletter by registering to our site which will also enable you to download lots of digital stamps and templates for cardmaking for free – register now.

For most people cardmaking becomes a hobby that they’re happy to spend money on, the act of making the card is the enjoyment and most people are happy to pay for the bits and pieces of craft supplies that come as part and parcel of the craft. In fact, building your ‘Craft Stash’ can be fun too! (it’s easy to become addicted to buying stamp sets and dies!)

Cardmaking for Beginners

In our new series of card making for beginners, we will be looking at techniques you can learn to boost your cardmaking skills and also extend the fun. What do you want to know how to do better? Please get involved in our poll on our closed group and add in your ideas for what we should talk about.  We really want your input, if you would like to write some tips for us or share a tutorial just get in touch and let us know, we really welcome your skills and I’m sure our community of cardmakers and crafters will really benefit from it!  Email us now to contribute or with your ideas.

Basic supplies for cardmaking

Cardstock – you’ll need a selection of weights of card to enable you to create your cards. The CraftStash blog has a great guide to different paper weights and sizes for cardmaking which will really help you when deciding what you need to buy.

Glue and Tape – you can never have enough glue or tape in your stash! There is a huge selection of adhesives available, from traditional liquid glue to foam pads that can add depth to your designs. You need glue that’s not bulky for adhering layers of card and that dries clear for adding embellishments. We think that you should invest in some Cosmic Shimmer adhesive which dries clear and comes recommended by so many crafters, including Christina Griffiths of Cardmaking Magic fame. Plus get yourself a tape runner with double-sided tape.

Craft Knife and Scissors – A decent pair of scissors (or a few different sized pairs) and a sharp craft knife will enable you to cut shapes and also cut intricate designs.

Cutting Mat – you need to protect your surfaces with a cutting mat when cutting but these mats can also protect your surfaces from inks and glue.  A large cutting mat can act as a general crafting surface, most come with ruled lines to help you cut straight lines and get measurements right. You can get self-healing cutting mats or glass medium mats.

Metal Ruler – you can use any ruler, but a long metal rule will last forever and you will never accidentally cut into it with a craft knife.

Paper Trimmer – you could use a metal rule and a craft knife but a decent quality paper trimmer will give you far more accurate results.

Embellishments – Ribbons, glitter, buttons, brads, gemstones and more. Embellishments can help add wow factor to your cards and it’s great fun building up

Inks, Pens, and Pencils and Colouring Media – building your stash will take time, but if you’re planning on stamping you’ll need some inks and colouring pens or pencils.

Stamps & Dies– There are 1000’s of stamps and dies available to help you create beautiful designs. We’ll be going through different types of stamping and die-cutting techniques in this cardmaking for beginners series, including looking at die-cutting machines and stamping platforms.

Build Your CardMaking Kit

Our experts have picked out a handful of their best buys and key tools to get you started. Check out our shopping list here.