How To Do Alone: Winter Crafty Cards

It’s cold and grey and rainy and snowy outside and you’ve wanted to do some winter project crafty things but think 1. It takes too much time, 2. You can’t do it, 3. Someone else can do it better, 4. You don’t have the supplies, or 5. You need someone to help. I’m here to let you know 1. These cards take 1-3 hours to make, 2. You CAN do this, 3. No one can make them like you can, 4. You can use anything you have supply wise, and 5. I’m here to help!

Makes: 12 cards approximately 3”X4” or 6 cards and 3 envelopes.

What You Need:

Brown paper bag. A large paper grocery bag can make 12 cards or 6 cards and 3 envelopes.

Adhesive. Glue, Tape, Mod Podge, Spit if it’s loogey enough, Finger nail polish, model airplane glue, paint even gets sticky and will be kind of cool when it dries. You could even sew everything together with needle and thread.

Scissors. Or a sharp knife if you know how to wield it, hack saw, hatchet if you’re working with really thick paper.

Magazines. Wrapping paper, wall paper, pictures, photographs, maps, newspapers, printed images, pieces of paper or tags or lists you’ve found, candy wrappers sans candy.

Blank Paper. This is for the inside message. This is optional. You can just write on the paper bag inside. The white paper makes it easier to write and read the message.

Writing Thing. Pen, pencil, marker, crayon, paints, rusty nail, charcoal, stick burned at the end… blood from your finger, I guess, if you’re desperate to write a message right then and there and you find yourself without something with which to write. I would suggest skipping the blood and waiting until you find something else.

Music. Crafty Playlist anyone?

Note: This version of cards is the “I just wanna make something” version. This is not the “I’m going to make cards and envelopes and sell them for bunches of money” version. The later requires a lot of time, rulers, exacto knives, pressing, sealing, selling, and an accuracy that is not required for the former.

What To Do:

Grab your magazines, photos, wall paper, collectings, and whatever and start cutting away. Get a collection of card size things. Set aside. Grab your paper bag. I’m working with a standard grocery bag size. You know how both sides can fold in? Well hold the opening of the bag in front of your face so you see those folds. Notice how it looks like a W or an M? you are going to cut from the top of the bag down to the bottom as if you are freeing the capitalized letter from the side of the bag. When you are done cutting you are going to have a really long letter shape. Open this letter and cut down the middle crease of this so you have two V shapes. This will be where your cards come from. You can leave the sides uneven or cut them so you have even sides.  Close the fold and cut across so you have three individual cards. Before you get your adhesive/tape/glue all over the cards and the clippings do a test run. Go through your clippings and fit all the pieces on the front of the card the way you want it before gluing so you can change things around if you want. Then glue/adhesive/sew everything together. Next you can cut some white stripes of paper to fit (you’ll have to glue/tape it) inside of the card so you have a writing surface or you can leave the card as is and write on the brown paper bag. If you decided to make envelopes all you have to do is find an envelope already made that fits your cards. Open up the envelope and trace the shape on the brown paper bag. Then cut the shape out and glue/tape the sides down so there is space for the cards to fit in your new brown paper envelopes. Use your writing thing to write a message. And Ta Da!

What I Did:

See above.

P.S. If you really like cutting things out the cutting/collecting process itself can take 1-2 hours extending this project into more hours. But, hey, you might really get into it and not care how long you are being all crafty-like.