Homemade card ideas made easy

Homemade cards show that preparation and thoughtfulness was in the works during the crazy hustle and bustle of the season.

To make a basic holiday card, most supplies needed can be found around the house such as paper, glue, ribbon, glitter, scissors, markers, crayons, etc.

To bump up a homemade card to commercial-card status, a few specialty supplies such as die-cuts, rubber stamps, stickers, paper punches or designer paper are required.

Carolina Stamper on Carteret Street offers card-making classes and any supply needed to make a glitzy homemade card.

"There are so many different types of techniques and styles," said Carolina Stamper's expert card maker, Tammy Ramos, as she walked through the aisles of the store pointing out various stickers, papers, stamps and supplies.

Ramos said rubber stamps are the easiest and most economical way to make cards in bulk.

Just choose a style of blank stationary and a stamp. The store offers a variety of ink colors and Tombo markers that can be used to color rubber stamps to make intricate color patterns.

The most popular card design at the shop is of a palmetto tree decorated for Christmas with ornaments and lights.

Ramos said the first step in making the card is selecting a palmetto tree stamp, then choosing the paper for the card. Next, choose an ink color for the tree; green works well. Seashell stamps can be purchased to act as the ornaments or they can be drawn on. Add glitter dots on the tree branches to act as lights.

The final touch is a ribbon pasted on the trunk.

Inside, the card can be inscribed with a stamp that has a Lowcountry message, "Seas & Greetings."

The process takes about five minutes to complete, Ramos said.

"The initial cost, setting up to get started might seem like a lot, but it comes out cheaper in the long run than buying cards," she said.

Flora Tan, who contributes her homemade card ideas on a Web site, making-greeting-cards.com, suggests a photo greeting card made by adding a photo of family or pets.

To start, Tan's site suggests choosing a theme. Is it going to be a traditional theme? Red and green with gold trimmings? Or, will it be a black and white Christmas?

And if time is short, Tan suggests keeping Christmas card designs simple, especially if several need to be made.

A simple and economical way to make a holiday card, particularly with children, is to use potato stamps.

Cut potatoes in half or in thirds. Draw a design on the exposed potato with a pencil. Carve out the design using a sharp knife. Dip the potato stamp in poster paint or tempera paint and press stamp on paper. A marker also works to stain the stamp, but the print will be lighter in effect.

Also, carve rubber erasers, cork, or Styrofoam for a variety of stamps with different textures.

Stamps in the shape of

candy canes, Christmas trees, stars and gingerbread men work well for Christmas

cards.

Or, get creative and implement Lowcountry-themed stamps into a holiday card design using shells, crabs, turtles or palmetto trees.

Gift tags are also an easy way to get creative; just cut out a tag using green paper and punch a hole on the top corner and tie a ribbon.

Use a stamp to print on a design, or draw in holly or a Christmas tree by hand.

Stock envelopes can be purchased inexpensively at stationary stores, or gently pull apart a favorite envelope style and trace it to create a new one. Cut it out and paste it together to form an envelop.

"You can really get creative," Ramos said.