Saturday, February 11, 2012

DIY Business Card Tutorial

I ran out of business cards this past week & then the shop got very busy.  Without any cards to tuck into packages I looked around my studio for other options & my eyes settled on a 1967 Memory game that I picked up at a local thrift for fifty cents last week.

I bought it because I was in love with the illustrations on the little 2" x 2" cardboard game cards, why not utilize their awesomeness for the shop in a way other than reselling?  So here's what I did.

 Vintage game pieces (playing cards would work well too), craft glue, a sheet of printed out shop info & my trusty scissors.
 I cut the printout into long strips & then into squares.  Put one card onto a cutout & used my scissors to trim around the edges.
 Then I used that first cutout piece as a template for the rest of them.  This part was a bit tedious, but I listened to some Old 97's & it moved me right along.
 I mixed the craft glue with water (2 parts glue, 1 part water) & brushed it on the back of the cards with a small paintbrush & applied the cutout.  I put them face down on a sheet of newspaper & weighted them with books for about 15 minutes until all of them were finished.

Then I set them in the windowsill behind the woodstove to dry ... it only took about twenty minutes.
 Now I have a tray full of 64 super fun "cards" to tuck into my packages before mailing them.  Even when my new shipment of Moo Cards arrive, I'll probably use these once in a while ... they're SO darn cute.  They took about an hour to make & cost me a whopping fifty cents (plus two cents worth of card stock ... maybe ten cents in printer ink & maybe a penny's worth of glue).
They look super cute on my packages ... the hard part is giving them up, see what I mean about those illustrations! 

7 comments:

  1. I love this idea! I sometimes tuck in vintage playing cards with cute designs but have never thought to put my info on the back. Super cute!

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  2. I like this idea. I was just fidgeting over how I was going to get some business cards together in time for an event this week. This is a great solution! Charity shops, here I come!

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  3. OH MY those memory cards are so adorable! What a fun project and great idea. I would be sad to see them go too, just make sure you send me one with my sassy doll heehee.

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  4. I was wondering if those cards were designed by Charley Harper...I thought I had read once that he designed cards, but I could be wrong. The graphics are super!

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    1. You know I'm not sure, some do resemble his work ... the only information in the game box about the artwork on the cards says that some of the artwork is from House of Cards by Eames.

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