I have seen a number of card tutorials online which claim to be “easy.” It has been my experience, though, that unless you happen to have a knack for design, most of this aren’t truly easy.  Here is a tutorial for cards that anyone can make.  (You probably need to be able to color-coordinate okay on your own, but you don’t need much skill beyond that.)

Use this tutorial to make cards to send yourself, or make sets of notecards, and bundle into ribbon- or twine-tied stacks to give as gifts.

You will need:

• blank cards or cardstock
• coordinating envelopes
• paper – colored and/or decorative (scraps work well)
• anything else you want to use for embellishing – decorative punches, stamps, markers, scraps of ribbon, etc.
• adhesive
• scissors

Here’s what you do:

(By the way, I am creating cards digitally here for the sake of easily providing images, but I usually make actual, paper cards.)

1. Select a card.  Or, if you’re using cardstock, make one.  This is pretty simple.  Just cut your cardstock in half.  (If you are holding it “portrait”-style, you should be separating the top from the bottom.)  Then fold each of those pieces in half to make a card.
2. Now, you want to divide the card along a line indicated by the “golden mean.” This sounds really complicated, but it’s not.  The “golden mean” (or “golden ratio”) is simply a proportion that has been determined to be aesthetically pleasing.  It’s pretty much 3/5ths and 2/5ths.  (Somewhere around a third, but not quite.)  I don’t measure this or anything, just eyeball it.  So, to reiterate, divide your card into roughly two-fifths and three-fifths sections.  Glue a piece of paper on to fit the two-fifths section and another (coordinating) paper to fit the three-fifths section.  It should look something like this:

(In hindsight, I probably should have used something other cream for the upper portion, so it would show up better here!)  You can use whatever adhesive you prefer: glue stick, photo squares, tape runner, double-sided tape.  I wouldn’t recommend liquid glue, as it will warp your paper, but any “dry” adhesive should work.

3. Glue something narrow along the seam.  Ribbon, twine, yarn, whatever.  I’ve often been known to use a very narrow strip of paper if it’s all I have that coordinates.

Ta-da!  (Or, as my four-year-old says, “Ta-da-ta-da-ta-DA!”)  You made a card.  Just by changing up the colors, patterns, or textures of the paper and the details of what you use for your “line,” you can create a good deal of variation on this.  If you’d like to change it up even more, keep reading.

Change it Up!

There are an almost endless number of ways to change this up without complicating things a whole lot (‘though you can certainly make it more complicated if you like!).  You can…

Add a small embellishment to the seam.  This doesn’t have to be much.  A little bow or something works just fine.  Here I’ve just add a trio of brads (which would look much better if they were actually 3-D, rather than images).  Buttons would work the same way.

Add text to the top of the card.  (Sometimes you can add it to the bottom instead, depending on your card.)  This is not quite as simple a text block as I had in mind, but it’s what I could find quickly.  If you have a message stamp, like “Happy Birthday” or “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” this is a good way to use it without having to do anything fussy.

One of the more complicated – but still not terribly difficult – options is to add a larger element to the card, overlapping the seam, along the line where you would divide the card the other direction using the golden mean.  You can do this with or without having used a “line” along your original seam.

It is almost always a good idea to “mat” the element you’re using here, to visually anchor it to the page.  Matting is not complicated; it just requires adding another, slightly larger piece of paper behind the first to sort of “frame” it.  Then the uppermost paper can be stamped or whatever.  In this case, I’ve actually used a third piece to decorate it, but there is nothing complex about putting it together.  It’s just the leaf glued to a rectangle of paper, glued to a rectangle of paper.  It takes no special skill or artistic ability.

Use a decorative stamp on top.

Instead of dividing the card with a straight line, you can use scallops, waves, or other decorative edges.  Here is one that uses scallops.  (And I’ve added a bow along the line.  Because there is no outline along the edge, it needs something other than just the paper.  If I were doing this in paper, though, I could even outline the scallops with a black marker, and leave it at that.)

You don’t have to divide the card horizontally.  You can make the division vertically instead, as shown here.  (You’ll also notice that the ribbon used here is a bit wider than what was used on the burgundy-and-cream card.  Just to show you something else you can do to make it different.)

Make the line vertical and add an embellishment.  (In this case, a charm tied on with a tiny piece of ribbon.)

The card itself doesn’t have to be in landscape orientation, either.  Here I’ve made the entire card the other direction.

A few tips:

• It usually works best to keep your darker paper, or the one with the busiest print, at the bottom.  These papers are visually “weightier” and will “ground” the design if they’re at the bottom, but can make it look top-heavy if they’re at the top.
• When you’re gluing on the paper, you can either cut it first; or you can line it up where you want it on the card and glue it down, then trim the part that sticks off the edges of the card.
• You can buy card envelopes by the box.

If you decide to have cards printed, for whatever reason, try InkGarden.  We just had some of my daughter’s done, and the quality was great.  Right now, there’s a pretty good deal that will let you get a stack of cards for $1 + shipping.

Digital images came from My Memories Suite.  Use coupon code STMMMS97354 if you choose to purchase, and get $10 off plus $10 to the shop.