Hello! Lisa (@nolalettering) here to show you how to create a greeting card for any occasion. This is a great way to show someone you care, especially when it’s handmade and personalized. Whether it's for a special occasion like Mother's Day, birthday or just because, making your own greeting cards is a fun and creative way to show your love and appreciation. In today’s blog, I will show you how to create your own card in 5 simple steps.

Materials

Before you start designing your card, you'll need to choose the blank card that you want to use. You can find blank cards in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials online or at your local craft store. It depends on your preference. For today’s tutorial, I am using heavyweight folded cardstock from Ohuhu.

In addition to the blank cards, I will also be using

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Fineliners
• Archer and Olive Calliograph Brush Pens
• Archer and Olive Acrylograph Paint Pen

Don’t forget to use my affiliate code nolalettering to get 10% off Archer and Olive products!

Choose a Design

Once you have your blank card, you can start thinking about the design you want to create. Designs should include an overall text letting the recipient know what the purpose of the card is. If you find you have extra space, simple doodles can further spice up your card.

Write out the text

For the main text, it can be something simple like, Happy Birthday or Happy Mother’s Day! Or if you’re feeling creative, you can include some related puns or funny quotes. For example, if you’re creating a Valentine’s Day card, you can use the pun Bee Mine and your doodles can include bees, bee hives and other bee-related items alongside the usual hearts.

Add the doodles

To come up with some doodles, think about the theme of the card and what is associated with it. For example, I am creating a Mother’s Day card, so I want to think of doodles that are associated with Mother’s Day, which include flowers (or a bouquet of flowers), hearts, balloons, a mug that says “Best Mom Ever” to name a few.

There are some doodles that can be used across cards of all occasion, such as an envelope, postage stamp, flowers, stars and many others. If you ever run out of ideas, you can search online using the keywords for your theme and see what shows up in the image results to inspire you.

I have prepared a printable of my most frequently used doodles and some easy composition you can use for your card.

Ink and Color

Once you’re happy with the layout of your card design, go ahead and ink it. I also highly recommend coloring it in as it makes it more fun and festive. You know your card recipient best, though, so consider personalizing it to their taste.

For example, if your recipient is a fan of black and white, leaving your design black and white may be the best. The great thing about creating your own cards is you can cater to the tastes of your recipient. Similarly, if you know your recipient is a fan of a specific animal or food or quote, you can use that to help guide your card design.

Watch the video to see how I created my Mother's Day card design!

Add Text, Embellish, and Send it Off!

Once you have your design completed, it's time to add the text inside the card. You can write the message normally in your handwriting or you can make the inside fun as well! For example, in my card, I’ve not only written a simple message in my messy handwriting, I’ve also lettered Happy Mother’s Day inside a banner and added doodles around the text. This does take a little more time, but it makes the card even more fun.

Now your card is ready to be given to the recipient. If you’re mailing the card, consider using postage stamps that relate to the theme of your card. For example, a Mother’s Day card could use a flower stamp or a heart stamp. Most post offices will have stamps for different occasions, so don’t forget to check out your local post office for fun stamps.

Whether you are mailing or hand delivering the card, you can make the front of your envelope even more interesting by lettering the recipients name in a different style and adding some doodles like dots or lines around the envelope in different colors.

If you need more card creating inspiration, check out this tutorial on Easy Homemade Christmas Card!

Making your own greeting cards can be a fun and creative way to show your loved ones that you care. With just a few simple steps, you can create a personalized card that is sure to make a lasting impression.

If you do create a card, please share with us on social media and tag me, @nolalettering, on Instagram along with @archerandolive, @archerandolive.community and use the hashtags #AOShare and #archerandolive so we can see your beautiful creations.