Mother’s Day cards in the making.

I thought I would go into how I go about making my handmade cards. I love the fact that I am using a combination of watercolours and papers to make these, and then cutting out the elements using a nice handy swivel scalpel. I use a really nice quality off white textured card that is 300gsm and acid free. It took a lot of searching for a card that was a little different than just hammered or linen which is a popular choice with hand made creations.

After I have doodled out my design, and like the end result, I draw and make a template so that I can get the same element each time. This is some of the template pieces I currently have in use.

I use the template to repeat the design on just one piece of card so I can keep track of the pieces, and it makes life easier to paint them too.

I tend to paint the part of the design I am going to need to attach the papers to first to give it the most time to dry, so in this case I start with the birds (as you can see I like variety in my work…) I then move onto the branches and then the leaves. I just paint the leaves straight onto the card with my large brush, rather than draw them first.

You can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process, but I find that the heat buckles the card too much and can cause blooms in the paint, so I like to let it all dry at it’s own speed. Once it is all dry, I start to work on my vintage paper elements. I use a mixture of cutters and a scalpel to create the sizes I need for my designs, and as this shot shows the different combinations I like to make. These are pretty for many different card types, and in lots of colour combinations.

Once the glue has set I cut out the image leaving a small white stroke around it’s outside.

Here are my elements gathered ready to assemble using 3D foam pads. These are thin enough to have the card post as a normal sized postage stamp, but deep enough to make the details stand out with a nice shadow.

The finished card. The final touch is a sweet hand written greeting, that can made with any custom wording on it.

If you are after a card for a special occasion, feel free to contact me for anything custom. These cards come sealed in a celo bag with its envelope, and is posted in a card backed envelope. £3.25 including the postage (within the UK)

Tags: dorset studio, hand made cards