Easy Greeting Cards
Paper Strip Card: An Easy Design That Uses Up Scraps
Glue scrap strips of mixed widths across a backing piece, trim the overhang in one pass and mount the striped panel on an A2 card base.
Make Meaningful Greeting Cards by Hand
Step-by-step tutorials for handmade cards: birthdays, thank-yous, holidays and everyday notes, plus the cutting, folding and layering skills behind them.
Start Here
New to card making? Work through these four guides in order.
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Card Making for Beginners: Tools, Paper and Your First Card
What a handmade card is made of, the short list of tools you need, and a first card to make: a folded base, one mat and a paper heart.
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Cardstock for Card Making: Weights, Finishes and Grain
How to read paper weights, which cardstock suits card bases and which suits layers, and how finish, core and grain affect the finished card.
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How to Cut Cardstock Cleanly: Card Sizes and Straight Edges
Straight, square cuts with scissors, a craft knife or a paper trimmer, plus the measurements for A2 card bases, mats and other common card sizes.
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How to Score and Fold a Card Without Cracking
Scoring presses a dent along the fold line so cardstock folds straight and does not crack. Here is how to score, fold and burnish a card base with simple tools.
Easy Greeting Cards
Minimalist Handmade Cards: Clean Designs With Very Few Supplies
One focal element, plenty of white space and careful placement. The principles behind minimalist cards, with three clean designs to make.
Easy Greeting Cards
5 Simple Handmade Cards You Can Make With Basic Supplies
Five easy card designs made from plain cut-paper shapes: three hearts, color blocks, confetti dots, a single flower and diagonal stripes.
Birthday Cards
Birthday Banner Card With Paper Pennants
Cut a row of equal paper pennants from scrap strips with one zigzag cut and string them along two swooping lines. The lower third stays free for a handwritten greeting.
Birthday Cards
Pop-Up Birthday Card With a Stack of Gifts
Three box-fold tabs in one liner lift three paper gifts when the card opens. Follow the order cut, fold, test closed, decorate, glue, and nothing sticks out of the edge.
Birthday Cards
Layered Birthday Cake Card With Paper Candles
Stack three paper rectangles into a tiered cake, add hand-cut wavy icing, thin candles and a raised middle tier. Suggested measurements fit a standard A2 card.
Thank You Cards
How to Make a Matching Set of Thank-You Cards
Batch-make six or eight coordinated thank-you cards: one layout, one palette, one detail that changes, an assembly-line order and a scrap-card jig for consistent placement.
Thank You Cards
Botanical Thank-You Card With Cut Paper Leaves
Cut symmetrical paper leaves from folded scraps, crease a vein down each one and arrange them as an arching sprig or an open wreath with space for a handwritten thank-you.
Thank You Cards
Simple Thank-You Card With a Layered Paper Flower
One three-layer paper flower, a thin stem and two leaves, set off-center on a matted panel. Petals are cut in a stack so they match and curled over a pencil.
Seasonal Cards
Autumn Leaf Card in Warm Layered Paper
Paper leaves in red, yellow and kraft brown drift diagonally across a white panel, a few of them raised on foam. A warm card for autumn birthdays and Thanksgiving greetings.
Seasonal Cards
Spring Card With Paper Tulips
Three paper tulips on stems of different heights rise from a striped band. A cheerful spring card for birthdays, Mother's Day, Easter or a get-well note.
Handmade Card Techniques
Stamped-Style Card Designs With Homemade Stamps
Make your own stamps from craft foam, erasers, corks and bottle caps, then print repeat patterns for original handmade cards.
Handmade Card Techniques
Dimensional Cards: Foam Adhesive, Raised Layers and Shadow
How to add real depth to a handmade card with foam adhesive, homemade spacers, curled paper and a raised window frame, without any pop-up mechanics.
Handmade Card Techniques
Pop-Up Card Basics: The Box Fold and the V-Fold
The two mechanisms behind most pop-up cards, explained step by step: the box fold cut across the center fold and the V-fold glued across it, plus how to keep both inside the closed card.
Latest Tutorials
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Holiday Cards
Winter Holiday Card With Cut Paper Snowflakes
Small six-point snowflakes cut from thin white paper sit on a deep blue panel with dots of falling snow. A winter card that suits any December holiday or a new-year greeting.
Holiday Cards
Christmas Tree Card Made From Paper Strips
Horizontal paper strips stacked from long to short build a tidy tree with a kraft trunk and a star on top. Straight cuts only, and easy to make in batches.
Seasonal Cards
Autumn Leaf Card in Warm Layered Paper
Paper leaves in red, yellow and kraft brown drift diagonally across a white panel, a few of them raised on foam. A warm card for autumn birthdays and Thanksgiving greetings.
Seasonal Cards
Spring Card With Paper Tulips
Three paper tulips on stems of different heights rise from a striped band. A cheerful spring card for birthdays, Mother's Day, Easter or a get-well note.
Celebration Cards
Anniversary-Style Card With Interlocking Paper Hearts
Two hearts cut from folded paper, overlapped so one tucks behind the other, on a soft double mat. A restrained card for anniversaries, engagements, weddings or friendship.
Celebration Cards
Congratulations Card With a Paper Starburst
Thin paper rays fan out from one point and a raised star covers the spot where they meet. One scrap-friendly design for graduations, new jobs, new homes and exams.
Ready to fold your first card?
Start with one sheet of cardstock and a simple design, then add layers, dimension and pop-ups at your own pace. Every tutorial on the site is free to read, no sign-up needed.