Card Making for Beginners: Tools, Paper and Your First Card

Card making for beginners comes down to three skills: cutting a straight line, folding a clean crease and gluing one piece of paper flat onto another. Everything else, from layered flowers to pop-ups, is built from those three. You do not need a craft room or a machine to start. A few sheets of cardstock and tools that are probably already in a drawer are enough for a card worth giving.

Below you will find what a handmade card is made of, the short starter kit, the standard size, and a first card to make: a folded base, one colored mat and a single paper heart, with a greeting in your own handwriting.

The parts of a handmade card

Most handmade cards are a stack of the same few pieces. Knowing their names makes every tutorial easier to follow.

• Card base: the folded piece of heavier cardstock that everything else sits on. It is the structure of the card, so it needs to stand up on its own.
• Mat: a slightly smaller piece of colored cardstock glued to the front. It frames whatever goes on top and adds a border of color.
• Panel: a smaller piece again, often white, that sits on the mat and carries the design. A simple card can skip it and decorate the mat directly.
• Focal piece: the one thing the eye goes to first, such as a heart, a flower or a balloon.
• Greeting: the words, which some crafters call the sentiment. On this site the greeting is always handwritten, on the front or inside.

Each layer is cut a little smaller than the one beneath it, so a narrow, even border shows all the way around.

The starter kit

Buy as little as possible at first. The list below covers hundreds of designs, and most items have a household stand-in.

Item	What it does	Substitute
Cardstock, white plus a few colors	Card bases, mats and cut shapes	None, this is the one thing to buy
Scissors or a paper trimmer	Cuts straight edges and shapes	Sharp household scissors
Ruler and pencil	Measures and marks cut and fold lines	Any ruler with a clean, straight edge
Bone folder	Scores the fold line and flattens the crease	The back of a blunt butter knife
Glue stick or liquid glue	Holds layers flat	Double-sided tape
Foam squares (optional)	Raise one piece so it casts a shadow	A small stack of cardstock scraps

Cardstock deserves the most thought, because flimsy paper makes a floppy card no matter how carefully you work. A heavier sheet, roughly 216-300 gsm, suits the base, and lighter cardstock is easier to cut for mats and shapes. The guide to cardstock weights, finishes and grain explains what the numbers on the pack mean.

The standard size: A2

The most common handmade card in the US is called A2 and measures 4.25 x 5.5 in (10.8 x 14 cm) when folded. Its popularity is practical: one US letter sheet (8.5 x 11 in) cut in half gives two card bases with no waste, and envelopes in that size are easy to find.

Each half is 8.5 x 5.5 in. Folded across the middle at 4.25 in, it becomes a side-fold card that opens like a book. If you have A4 paper instead, cut an A4 sheet in half the same way for a very similar card.

Make your first card

What you need

• 1 letter sheet of white cardstock for the base
• 1 piece of pink cardstock, at least 4 x 5.25 in (10.2 x 13.3 cm)
• A scrap of red cardstock, about 2.5 in (6 cm) square
• Scissors, ruler, pencil
• Bone folder or blunt butter knife
• Glue stick or liquid glue

Cut the pieces

Cut the white sheet in half to get a base piece of 8.5 x 5.5 in (21.6 x 14 cm). Save the other half for a second card. Cut the pink mat to 4 x 5.25 in, which is 1/4 in (6 mm) smaller than the card front in both directions. For the heart, fold the red scrap in half, draw half a heart against the fold and cut through both layers so the two sides match. Step-by-step help with straight edges is in the guide on how to cut cardstock cleanly.

Put it together

1. Score the base. Lay the white piece flat with the long edge toward you. Mark the middle at 4.25 in (10.8 cm) at the top and bottom edges, line up the ruler on the marks and draw the bone folder firmly along it. The dent it leaves is the score line.
2. Fold the base. Fold the card along the score, match the corners and run the bone folder along the fold to flatten it. A scored fold is straight; an unscored one wanders and can crack.
3. Add the mat. Spread glue over the back of the pink mat, right out to the edges, and set it on the card front with an even white border of 1/8 in (3 mm) all around. Press from the center outward.
4. Add the heart. Glue the red heart a little above the middle of the mat. Placing it slightly high looks balanced and leaves clear space below.

Let the glue dry fully, then write your greeting by hand, either beneath the heart or inside the card.

Common first-card problems

A crooked fold almost always comes from skipping the score or measuring only one edge. Mark both edges and score against the ruler. The guide on how to score and fold a card covers this in detail, including what to do when the fold cracks.

Uneven borders come from placing the mat by one corner. Look at all four borders before pressing down; a glue stick gives you a moment to slide the mat into place.

Where to go next

Three guides build directly on this one and are best read in order: cardstock first, then cutting, then scoring and folding. After that, the same base, mat and focal piece can be rearranged into dozens of designs. For more practice with the same kit, try these five simple handmade cards.