Save Money by Making Your Own Cards at Home

At an average of three to five dollars per card, birthday, holiday, and other occasion cards can easily add up to hundreds of dollars per year. Save money by making your own cards at home using recyclable materials or your home computer.

Recyclable Holiday Art Cards

Save money by saving materials that can be made into holiday cards later. You can save everything from lace and buttons to fabric and magazines. Old postcards and photos are also excellent for card making. When it is time to make a card for a holiday or birthday, simple take out a piece of pastel card stock paper and fold it in half. Decide whether you want a vertical or horizontal card. Use the materials you have saved and make a colorful collage in the front of the card. Pressed flowers and lace make beautiful mother day or birthday cards, or you can make a fun children's birthday card with bright colorful paper animals in a jungle of tiny fabric palm leaves. For holiday fun, like Christmas, Hanukkah, or Thanksgiving, save the magazine advertisements and artfully collage the holiday images to the front of your holiday card.

Make cards with your children

Every grandparent loves receiving homemade cards from their grandchildren during holiday time, a birthday, or anniversary. Bring out markers, crayons, glitter, and sequins, and enjoy a fun time of card making with your children. You and your children can save money and have fun by making cards for their teachers, grandparents and other loved ones, friends, the elderly at your church, or those that are sick and homebound. Not only do you get to enjoy a special fun time with your children, you also teach them something about giving and bringing cheer to others.

Making cards on your computer

If you are like me, you spend a plethora of your time on the computer. Translate your computer time into time to save money and make your own cards. You do not need a fancy program like Photoshop to make your own cards. You can scan or upload images from the internet and place them in a basic text program like Microsoft word. If you have artistic talent, you can even use simple drawing programs (often found in the accessory tab of a PC) to create simple images. Center the images on one half of the paper and print. If you are ambitious, you might even try creating the inside of the card in your computer, as well, and then print on the backside of the first sheet you printed. I have enjoyed putting fun web images on cards or even crazy webcam shots of myself in the front, with some zany crazy note on the inside.

Art Holiday Cards

If you are gifted with a talent for watercolor or drawing, you might be able to give someone a very special holiday card of your original art. Fold a piece of thick drawing paper in half, then unfold. Using the crease as a guide, paint or draw an appropriate image for the front of the card. You can opt to make flowers, birthday balloons, a birthday cake, or just a simple landscape. If you know how, use calligraphy to write your note on the inside after the outside is dry. For some art mediums, like charcoal, you may want to set the drawing by spraying fixative or hair spray on it.