Card Help - Free Card Sketch for Cardmaking Ideas

This card sketch is meant to help you generate some new ideas for cardmaking. The sketch is designed to give you ideas for horizontal greeting cards measuring 7" wide by 5" high. You can adapt the sketch as you see fit; it could also be reduced for use in 6" x 4" cards, or to design cards in other dimensions. Please note that the card sketch does not appear at full size due to space and bandwidth considerations. You can click the photo of the sketch to see an enlarged view. When re-creating this design, go by the actual measurements given on the card for best results.

The focal point of this sketch is the asymmetrical heart-shaped embellishment. If you'd like a ready-made heart in the right size and shape, use one of the pages from the Clear Scraps heart-shaped mini keychain album.

You can dress up your heart shaped embellishment before using it:

Ink it with StazOn ink

Paint it with Tim Holtz's a l c o h o l inks

Rubber stamp on it

Draw on it with Copic Markers or paint markers

Embellish it with rub-ons, crystals or rhinestones

Emboss it in the Cuttlebug machine using Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

Add stickers, stamped embellishments, or other fun accents

Also keep in mind that you do not need to use the Clear Scraps heart-shaped mini. You can substitute a heart-shaped die-cut, sticker, stamped image, or journaling block if you prefer.

How to Use This Card Sketch

Purchase or make a base for the card. There are plenty of 7" x 5" card blanks available for sale. If you'd rather make the base of the card yourself, choose cardstock or Bristol board and cut it to 7" wide by 10" high. Score it down the middle at the 5" mark using either a bone folder or Scor-Pal tool to create a sharp crease.

Choose coordinating plain papers, patterned papers, or cardstock that you want to use for making the top of your card. Cut the papers to the dimensions shown on the card sketch. Ink or embellish the papers creatively if you like. Assemble all the elements using the adhesive of your choice. If you're not sure which adhesive to use with the clear heart shaped embellishment, try Zip Dry Paper Glue.

Please view my other AC articles to see step-by-step instructions for making a card using one possible interpretation of this sketch.

You May Use This Card Sketch for Any of the Following Purposes:

Making handmade greeting cards to give to family and friends

Making handmade greeting cards to sell on the Internet, in your Etsy shop, in your Ebay store, or on any of the other ebay alternatives

Making handmade greeting cards to sell in craft stores, at craft fairs, or in other person-to-person venues

Design team commitments and magazine submissions

In short, you have my blessing to use this sketch when making cards for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. However, please respect my copyright and do not re-post the sketch anywhere on the Internet. Instead, please post a link to this page from your blog, web site, or gallery so that other crafters can visit this page to use the sketch. If you wish to teach a class using this sketch, please give your students the URL where this page is posted so that they can visit this page and print out their own copies of the sketch.

If you post any cards made from this sketch on the Internet in blogs, galleries, message boards, forums, etc, please give credit and link back to this page so that other cardmakers can find the sketch to use in their own cards too. Thanks so much for your support!

Share Your Interpretations!

If you've used this card sketch to create your own handmade greeting card, please feel free to post a link to the URL in the comments section. We'd love to see your interpretation of the sketch. Thanks for sharing!