So you’re ready to dive in and cut your own cards, eh? That’s great! Gather up some card stock and get ready to cut. While you can use a pair of scissors, I highly recommend a cutting board. I swear by my Fiskars paper trimmer. Don’t let it’s small size fool you! It can cut 12×12 papers as well as 8.5×11. Speaking of 12×12 paper – it’s something you should consider when choosing your card size. If your source of paper carries it, you can sometimes get more cards out of the 12×12 with less waste.
Below is a handy chart of the typical card sizes, how big a piece of paper you’ll be cutting, and how many you can fit per 8.5×11 or per 12×12. I’ve put the fold on the long edge for each of these cards. If you want it on the short edge, that will change the dimensions of the cut size and subsequently how many you can fit per page. The chart gets boring and predictable after a while, but at least it’s a visual reference. Remember to source your envelopes first!
If you’re making your own envelopes, you can go crazy with the size and make it whatever size you want. Want a 3×7 to make into a money card? Go for it! The trick is to figure out if you are folding along the long edge or the short edge, and doubling the size of the non folded edge. For example, in the 3×7 example, you are folding along the long edge (7″). The 7 stays the same, and you double the 3 into 6. So you would cut out a block of paper that’s 7×6.
Once you’ve cut out your cards, it’s time to fold them! In all of my examples above, I’m folding along the long edge. Your fold will be parallel to the edge you didn’t double. In all my examples above, that’s the long edge. (Reminder to self – add dotted lines to the image to show this). You can just match the edged and fold the cards by hand if you want. Or, if you’re using your silhouette to cut out your pages, add in a dashed line to the cut and use that to fold. Finally, you can use a scoring board (like this one) to create your fold line. I usually use the score board because I like the professional finish it creates.
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I changed my mind, I’d rather buy my card base after all.
I’m done with card sizes – show me the decorating!
I like to link up here.
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