Making Greeting Cards from Artwork

[Hawkmoth]

Hi all. After a bit of chat about this topic elsewhere, I thought I'd start a thread and find out if anybody else makes cards or likes the idea making cards from their artwork.

I make various types. For very small watercolours etc I mount the original directly onto a card blank. For bigger paintings I scan them and have two choices: 1) basic: print directly onto white card, and fold. Or 2) a bit fancier: print onto good paper, then mount onto card blanks.

I also do a lot of small needlework pieces and mount those into cards.

Here are some examples:

Left: a little abstract with gold paint on rough watercolour paper (I followed a tutorial on Youtube)
Right: a copyright-free colouring page, coloured with coloured pencils.
Both are the original work, simply mounted onto kraft card blanks

These (below) are both my own paintings, scanned and printed, then mounted onto cards using coloured mats.

Right now, I'm in the process of mounting some small embroidery pieces into cards. Here is a WIP photo. The right section of card will fold behind the needlework so it will end up a nice tidy single-fold card.

If you make cards from your artwork too, please share! I'd love to see what you do.

 

[CMorPaint]

These are beautiful! I just started looking into doing cards. Great work.

 

[Artyczar]

Those are great Claudia. Very nice. I made these once....

 

[CMorPaint]

Isn't that Dan?!? Love them too!

 

[Schuee]

Thanks, Claudia. Your cards are great. The embroidery ones are a very good idea.

Here is one of my Christmas cards. I’ve used the same theme for friends and family but personalised them with their dogs.

These are ink and watercolour on a folded sheet of paper.

I am also including this Christmas drawing with some of them.

It will be interesting to see other people’s cards.

I intend to make envelopes from Christmas paper.

 

[Schuee]

Those are great Claudia. Very nice. I made these once....

View attachment 12370

Oh! So nice, Artyczar. Very individual and creative.

 

[Artyczar]

Thanks Schuee and Cindy. Yes, those are Dan cards made with felt and grommets with stitching. I used see-through envelopes. They were actually special invitations for an art show.

 

[Schuee]

I haven’t come across see-through envelopes, Artyczar. I expect they are available in craft stores, which we don’t have in town, and, of course, on-line.

 

[Artyczar]

I bought mine online. They actually were not easy to find at the time. They aren't clearly see-through. They are kind of frosted, but they make the artwork look kinda cool.

 

[Triduana]

I'm loving eveyone's cards!

Here are some Christmas cards I made last year:

And a Valentine's card from this year. I'm especially proud of this one because it was the week after I broke my wrist (my dominant one) and I made this entirely one-handed.

 

[Artyczar]

These are great Kay. Did you use a stencil you made? Sorry about your wrist! OUCH!!!

 

[Triduana]

Thanks ... it was only a small fracture but it still hurts from time to time, especially when I'm chopping veg!

I used a stencil for both - I just laid the stencil on the paper and splatted paint at it. It was good fun but it is messy. I had to cut out the heart stencil one-handed too: I can't remember exactly how I managed it but it took ages!

 

[Schuee]

I bought mine online. They actually were not easy to find at the time. They aren't clearly see-through. They are kind of frosted, but they make the artwork look kinda cool.

Sounds, good, Artyczar. Perhaps I could make some with cellophane windows. I will probably make the usual sort.

 

[Schuee]

I'm loving eveyone's cards!

Here are some Christmas cards I made last year:

View attachment 12383

And a Valentine's card from this year. I'm especially proud of this one because it was the week after I broke my wrist (my dominant one) and I made this entirely one-handed.

View attachment 12385

Thanks, Kay. Your’s are excellent. I like the sprayed colours.

You did very well to make some one-handed.

 

[Donna T]

Thanks for starting this thread Claudia. It's so nice to know that there are card makers among us! Your cards are gorgeous and I can't imagine the time that goes into embroidery. Lucky people who get them!

Arty, the Dan cards are precious!
Penny, your ink and watercolor cards will end up in frames! How special that they are personalized!
Kay, your cards are really nice too! I hope your wrist is doing better.

I make cards out of prints I make on a 5x7 Gelli plate. I collect flowers, leaves, anything that can be flattened and dry them between heavy books. It's fun trying new ways of printing backgrounds and then adding the leaves etc. on top. I used to print directly onto the greeting cards but I now like to print the images separate and then attach them with double -sided tape. They aren't the usual Hallmark type cards but I like sending out a piece of original art. I save the really goofy ones for art friends.

Here are a few printed card fronts :

and some finished cards:

 

[Schuee]

Thank you, Donna.

This is very interesting. I haven’t come across a Gelli plate and will look it up. Your cards are very pretty and unusual.

 

[Triduana]

Donna I love these!

 

[Hawkmoth]

Wow, I'm absolutely loving seeing your cards! I'm so glad I started the the thread.

 

[Hermes2020]

Lovely work, everyone. I was tempted to respond by starting a mirror thread: Making Art from Greeting Cards, but then realized that Kurt Schwitters had pipped me at the post.

 

[drizzlewither]

Dang you guys these are great. A while back I toyed with the idea of handing out some Xmas ATCs as an alternative to cards but didn't like the work I came up with and bottled out.

Donna T those plant cards are nuts I adore them!!

Hawkmoth how do you print the paintings? Do you do it yourself on a home printer or go to professionals?