Cardmaking: Beginner

2/20/2019

Hello! The topic of this post is all about cardmaking for beginners, this is the first part in a 3 part series. The next post and video will be cardmaking: advanced beginner, followed by a post and video about how to put it all together! This is dear to my heart, teaching others what I love to do- papercrafting! Or maybe i'm being an enabler for a new hobby (insert winky emoji)!! The videos i'm doing for these will be live and i'll post them so you can watch and refer back to anytime! I'm doing them live so I can answer questions as I go! Check out the video here and the links below!

The first thing you want to think about before you start cardmaking is what's your reason or goal. Maybe you want to learn a new hobby, expand your creativity, be able to make your own greeting cards for friends and family. Maybe you want to sell cards at craft shows or on Etsy. Maybe you want to work as a designer for crafty brands. It's a good idea to know what your reasons are before starting anything new.
I'll be breaking this post and video in several sections; tools, paper, inks, adhesives, stamps, coloring mediums, and costs. My goal not to overwhelm you but to give you options and inform you of what essentials are necessary for a beginner cardmaker.

Tools
Paper trimmer
Ruler
Precision scissors (fine tip)
Bone folder
pencil
dual ended eraser

Paper
White cardstock
Black cardstock
Watercolor paper

Adhesives- you definitely don't need all of these i'm just giving you options
Zig glue pen
glue pen
Old fashion Mounting squares
Mono multi liquid glue
Adtech tape runner
Herma dotto
Ranger Multi medium matte
Foam adhesive in various shapes and sizes

Inks
Versafine black onyx
Momento tuxedo black

Stamps
Types: Rubber stamps, cling stamps, clear stamps
You'll want to have an idea of what type of images you are drawn to; cute, punny, floral, elegant... This will help you hone in on your style and prevent you from getting overwhelmed when purchasing stamps.
With cling and clear stamps you'll need acrylic blocks to mount them onto for stamping your images.
You'll also need something to clean the ink off of your stamps

Coloring mediums
Watercolors
Colored pencils
Markers

Costs
Papercrafting can become extremely expensive. I've personally been able to save a significant amount of money by only shopping sales, using coupons, and shopping online deals. Using Michaels, Hobby Lobby, JoAnns coupons to buy higher priced ideas such as your paper trimmer. Paper packs are often on sale at these stores as well. I have affiliate links (no cost to you but I may be a small commisssion) on some of the items i've talked about today. Scrapbook.com often has free shipping deals and amazing sales! You can find the stamps I use on scrapbook.com as well as the companies websites.
You'll be able to create beautiful cards with only a few basics! Cardmaking and papercrafting in general has definitely sparked joy for me an I hope it will for you!