Card Making Techniques

There are SO many card making techniques around that you are bound to find one that you enjoy.

These are just a few of the ways of making greeting cards:

• Parchment Craft
• Glass Painting
• Cross Stitch
• Teabag Folding
• 3D Decoupage
• Dry Stencil Embossing
• Ornare/Paper Pricking
• Rubber Stamping
• Using Stickers (outline stickers/peel offs)
• Digital Card Making(e.g. digital stamping, punching, papermaking)
• Printable Card Making (using digital supplies, greeting card software, online resources)
• "Artistic" cards (watercolours, coloured pencils etc)
• Eco-Craft/Frugal/Recycling
• 3D Pop Up Cards (Opens in New Window)

Card Making Techniques

Personally, I see card making falling into 3 specific 'styles':

• Traditional..."Papercraft"
• Digital...Using computers
• Arty/Creative...Using art materials

I also tend to see each of these styles as coming from specific geographical locations (and this is just MY personal way of seeing it).

European Card Making

The most 'hands-on creative' ways of making greeting cards is what I callEuropean card making - there is typically a lot of decorative work on the card such as dry stencil embossing, cutting work, using needlework threads. They also tend to have printed images as the focal point.

American Card Making

On the other hand, I see 'American' card making as very fancy, in a 'paper-based' way - mixing patterned background papers and brads etc - probably a spin off from scrapbooking techniques. I see rubber stamping as being 'American' too, since most stamp companies I dealt with were US based.

UK Card Making

I see British card making as being a mid-way mix between the two: we like to try the different European techniques and don't seem to really go for the patterned paper type cards, perhaps only using them sparingly. We also use '3D' elements quite a bit in the way of embellishments. From what I saw when I had the shop, I would describe our card making style as fairly conservative, even minimalist, often just using plain white, cream or pastel card, whereas you tend to see the European cards using much bolder, often quite dark, textured card.

Latin/South American Card Making

Another very important and stunningly beautiful card making style is what I call 'South American' style, also called 'Spanish Greeting Cards' - stunning, intricate parchment cards.

This very traditional card making technique has a global reach but I see as mostly popular in Northern Europe and Britain, not so sure about USA?

You may completely disagree with how I view these card making styles, but this is just how I came to see things from having my shop and seeing the different brochures and products etc. You knew when you were looking at European products versus American ones, and we Brits just seem to adopt the best of both worlds :)

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