DIY greeting cards

The month of January is almost coming to an end but it's never too late to send your sweet thoughts and well wishes! Why not send your loved ones personalized cards made by you?

In this new article, I share with you some of our greeting card tutorials as well as some advice, here and there.

If you are interested in making greeting cards, here is a list of creative supplies that you might find useful:

For basic supplies:

• a set of double cards and matching envelopes to customize
• scraps of Japanese paper
• a cutting rule
• white glue
• gel glue
• a cutter

To customize your cards:

• punches in various shapes and colored papers or glittery sheets
• stamps with designs of your choice and inks
• rolls of masking tape and stickers

Thanks to its varied patterns and shimmering colors, Japanese paper is perfect for creating greeting cards. It is enough in itself! So I like to imagine assortments of colorful Japanese papers to compose our greeting cards handcrafted in our workshop in Paris.

Using scraps of Japanese paper, have fun imagining a colorful range depending on the person to whom you are sending your card, the occasion in question, etc. Then simply cut out your scraps of Japanese paper according to the format of your card and the arrangement of the papers between them and then apply them to your blank card using white glue.

For our greeting cards, I like to combine two wide strips of Japanese paper in similar colors and generous patterns, highlighted by a thin strip of Japanese paper in a contrasting color and in a more minimalist pattern.

To easily decorate a greeting card, you can also make a relatively flat origami and stick it on your card using gel glue. On our blog, you can find a wide choice of origami tutorials. Here are a few :

• crab for a summer menu,
• the titmouse in flight and the titmouse posed for a spring card,
• the house for wishes for a good move,
• the leaf for an autumnal card,
• cherry blossom for a spring card, in the spirit of hanami,
• the heart for a romantic card,
• koinobori for summer card, in the spirit of kodomo no hi ,
• the cross for a graphics card,
• the 5-pointed flat star and the 8-pointed flat star for a card with a celestial spirit.

If you would like to discover other origami folds, my book “Origami as if by magic” brings together no less than 50 varied folds (animals, flowers, etc.) which will certainly inspire you with pretty greeting cards!

On the blog, you can already find some tutorials to learn how to make different greeting card models. Here are some examples:

For this article "TUTORIAL - Pretty celestial card and little owl in Japanese paper" , I thought I would make a card with a simple celestial spirit! Here, nothing too complicated, an origami owl and a few small scraps of Japanese paper and glitter paper to make a crescent moon and stars. This pretty, timeless card can be sent at any time of the year!

I really like using this block of glitter paper for our creations because they add a little touch of light to the cards.

For the flat origami tree tutorial , I imagined as a variation, a pretty Christmas card made up of an origami tree in plain Japanese paper or with minimalist patterns as well as a small glittery star, perforated using a star punch .

For this “DIY Greeting card: The origami hedgehog” card model, I composed a card with elements of the forest, a few leaves and origami hedgehogs wandering around the card as well as small glittery flowers, perforated using this daisy punch .

For folding the origami sheet , I like to use plain Japanese papers or with minimalist patterns: “false plains” as I call them.

I also made this card in the spirit of kodomo no hi , the children's day which takes place on May 5 in Japan, for this article: "DIY The koinobori card in Japanese paper"

Here, nothing very complicated once again: to show you that with a few materials, it is entirely possible to make pretty greeting cards: colored paper, a few scraps of Japanese paper and a little masking tap and that's it!

You can also mix different techniques to compose your card. For this card, I assembled small perforated daisies in colored paper, origami cherry blossoms made with Japanese paper and branches made using colored ink, engraving eraser and gouges. If this technique interests you, I invite you to discover our program of gum engraving workshops with Nathalie, from Le Héron Graveur . Eraser engraving allows you to make your own stamps and offers you plenty of creative possibilities.

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I hope you liked this article and made you want to make your own greeting cards and send sweet words throughout the year.

I'll see you again very soon for new tutorials!

Adeline