Hi, it’s Jamaica. The other day I had the urge to do something I haven’t done in a very long time… make some cards. I used to love making cards. In fact, it’s what got me into scrapbooking. I started buying scrapbooking supplies for card-making and before I knew it, I was making more than just cards!

Anyways, I thought it would be nice to send homemade cards to my family after their visit earlier this month. Not only would it be a great way to say thanks for helping celebrate my birthday but it would also be a fun way to send out the family photo we took.

In order to fit a photo on the front of the card and end up with a nice border around the outside, I set my card up to be roughly 5″ x 7″ (technically, it’s an A7). A7 envelopes are 5.125″ x 7″ so I made the card slightly smaller at 4.75″ x 6.75″. I decided to have the pattern appear only on the front so that I could write on the back too, if my note ran long. Setting it up was pretty easy—open your favorite patterned paper (mine is from diptych) and change the canvas size to 4.75″ x 6.75″. That will crop it to the size of the front of the card. Then, change the canvas size once more to 9.5″ x 7.75″, making sure to anchor the patterned paper to the bottom of the canvas so that the extra space appears above it. Once you’ve done that, print it onto cardstock with the corner crop marks turned on. Easy peasy.

To fancy the cards up, I decided to add a vellum overlay using the love script from pictures & words no. 18. This is the perfect place to use vellum—the black script looks gorgeous printed on the soft white vellum and it obscures the photo just enough to layer the love over the photo without the writing getting lost in the dark areas of the photo.

To set up the overlay, I changed the canvas size of the love file to 8.5″ x 11″ (you want to change the canvas size, as opposed to the image size so that the script stays the same size) and moved the artwork down to about 2″ up from the bottom. That leaves enough to wrap about the back of the card slightly and puts the script in the bottom third of the photo.

After adhering the photo to the front of your trimmed and folded card, cut the vellum to the same width as the card and wrap it around the card gently until the love is where you want it. Then crease the edges and add a bit of washi tape to the back, where the edges come together to hold it closed.

The vellum can now be slipped on and off, making a fun “reveal” for the photo on the front. To finish them off, I tied a silky, colored ribbon around each one and tucked them into a kraft envelope for mailing.

All in all, it was a very gratifying craft project. The cards didn’t take too long to make and I got to send something special to my family. I forget how much people love a handmade card. I need to do more of that…

xo, jamaica

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