If there is something I look forward to every year, it’s holiday card making! But with the hustle and bustle of the season, the task can seem daunting. Luckily, with a little imagination I’ve discovered a few ways to embellish cards that are quick and easy. For example, what’s easier than peeling and sticking? Decorative stickers are a simple way to add colorful images to a card. To really make them stand out, stick them onto a strip of paper in a contrasting color, and add a few adhesive crystals for sparkle.

When I’m feeling really crafty I use rubber stamps in my card making. Try rubber stamping in a bold color and adding layers of paper to create borders and dimension. The card above features our new Holiday Greetings Square Rubber Stamp, which is a fun way to add holiday sentiments to the outside or inside of a holiday card. Layering a rubber stamped piece onto a patterned note set creates a festive finished look.

Use decorative punches to create graphic shapes that turn blank cards into modern works of art! I punched circle shapes in a few bright colors using a 1″ circle hole punch. Next, I punched cute holiday shapes with the Fat Tree Punch. Once I was happy with the arrangement of the shapes, I used a glue stick to stick them in place. The overall effect is striking, yet so simple!

This technique works for many occasions with different hole punches and colored paper. Just imagine our Heart Hole Punch with red and fuchsia paper for Valentine’s Day cards, or a card with our Rubber Duck or Bunny Hole Punch and pink or blue paper to congratulate a new parent! Make a bunch and keep them on hand for when you need a last minute greeting card.

Here’s a tip for when you want to send a handmade card that looks exceptionally sharp – use our classic holiday shape cards as a base. They’re already diecut, so all that’s left to do is embellish! With so many combinations of adhesive crystals, stickers, ribbons and snippets of paper, the options are limitless!

Happy holiday card making!

– Claudia
PS colors: curry & fuchsia
Latest fave: Mini Magnolia Paper Flower Kit

Come to a Paper Source store this weekend for free holiday demonstrations and “make & take” projects… AND be one of the first to see the brand new at-home Letterpress Machine! We are so excited about this amazing table top machine that allows you to make your very own letterpress cards. Paper Source is one of the only vendors in the country to carry this item, and we’re thrilled to give you the opportunity to see how it works in person.

Saturday, November 14 from 11:30am – 5pm
Sunday, November 15 from 12pm – 4:30pm
All Paper Source stores

11:30am – 12:30pm • Holiday Gift Wrap, Accents & Hang Tags – Make & Take
During this hands-on make & take, we’ll show you how to dress up your holiday packages and hostess gifts using our baby #1 envelope template, hang tags, punches and more.

12:30 – 1:30pm • Keen Holiday Shapes & Kraft Ornaments – Demo
Learn simple tricks for dressing up our kraft ornaments with ribbon, adhesives, glitter, and paper accents. Perfect for hanging on your tree and adorning your holiday packages.

1:30 – 3:30pm • The NEW Letterpress Machine – Make & Take
Be one of the very first to see the new at-home Letterpress Machine in person! We’ll show you how to use this table top machine to create amazing letterpress cards. You’re sure to fall in love and be inspired to make your own letterpressed holiday cards this year!

3:30 – 5:00pm • Creative Crafting Time
Explore rubber stamping, heat embossing, quickie glue pens, glitter and more during our free Creative Crafting session. Please contact your local store for this “reservation required” crafting experience.

Come early to our make & take sessions (especially to see the Letterpress Machine!) as supplies are limited and available on a first come first serve basis.

–Linda
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: Saddle Stitch Notebooks

Just about every year, I find myself moving to a new apartment for one reason or another. This time around I wanted to send a creative handmade moving announcement to my friends and family to let them know my new address, instead of another mass email. In playing around with some of my favorite materials, I ended up creating the perfect “I’ve moved” postcard!

I rubber stamped and embossed the front of a postcard, and addressed each one.

To the back of the postcard I attached a 2 1/4″ x 3 1/2″ glassine envelope and added the message, “I’ve moved! Write me at my new address…”. I inserted a business card with my new address and sealed with a circle label. Such a fun and unexpected presentation!

Sending postcards lets you save some money on postage as they only require postcard postage stamps, and your friends will be more than thrilled to receive something fun in the mail! If you’re worried about the glassine envelope staying attached in the mail, you can always slip your finished piece into an envelope for protection (though all of my postcards made it safely to their destinations!).

–Catherine, Paper Source Alexandria Store
PS colors: gravel & curry
Latest fave: 2010 Cavallini Easel Calendar – Italia

Materials Needed:
Postcards Read the rest of this entry »

More and more people are throwing parties and insisting that their guests not bring presents… “No presents, just your presence” seems to be the theme. In these tough economic times, that’s not a bad thing. However, I often find myself wanting to bring at least a little something – a token of my friendship with that person. I’ve found recently that a handmade card can be just the thing.

Recently, a friend threw a surprise birthday party for his wife. The Sunday before the party, several of us gathered at my house where I pulled out my boxes of cards and craft supplies. Having moved across the country, I have gathered Paper Source materials from several stores: Chicago, Evanston, Carlsbad, Georgetown, Alexandria, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, and Thousand Oaks (lucky me, I know). By now I have quite an extensive collection of labels, blank cards, envelope liners, rubbers stamps, stamp pads, embossing supplies, rub-on transfers, ribbon and other materials. The plan was to create one-of-a-kind birthday cards for our friend.

At first, the room was quiet as people rummaged through the supplies and formulated ideas. Some started immediately cutting and gluing, others sketched out a draft of their design…and many started one idea, stopped, started another and so on. You can learn a lot Read the rest of this entry »

In my world, wreaths aren’t just for Christmas. By using a black and orange color palette, presto-change-o… a spooktacular Halloween card is born! When I find a technique or idea that I love, I use it for all types of occasions throughout the year by making simple changes to the design. This card is super easy to make using our shape hole punches – perfect leaf shapes every time!

Try making this card with a blossom wreath to welcome a baby girl or a bluebell wreath for a baby boy. How about a fuchsia and red wreath for a Valentine’s Day card? The possibilities are endless!

–Annie
PS colors: gravel & beet
Latest fave: Owl Placecard Kit

Materials Needed:
A2 Poppy Folded Cards Read the rest of this entry »

My brother and sister-in-law recently bought their first house, so I wanted to send an extra special handmade card to their new address. To honor this significant life step I went with the theme, “Moving on up!”. With a few easy cuts I was able to create a fun pop-up, and heat embossing provided realistic texture for my design. I can’t wait for them to receive it in the mail!

–Rachel, Paper Source Alexandria Store
PS colors: curry & gravel
Latest fave: VersaMarker Pen

Materials Needed:
A6 Folded Card Read the rest of this entry »

I love the graphic simplicity of our India Rubber Stamps. Whether used as one clean image or stamped in multiples they really make a statement. When I find a new rubber stamp design I love, I make several cards and gift tags to keep on hand. These cards would work for birthdays and as thank yous, and gift tags are great attached to a gift box or tied to a bottle of wine (the ultimate last minute gift!). If you love our India collection as much as we do, read more about the inspiration behind the entire collection.

p.s. Did you know that elephants are a symbol of luck, fortune and protection? They’re perfect for so many occasions!

–Annie
PS colors: gravel & beet
Latest fave: Owl Placecard Kit

The associates here at the Evanston Paper Source store are always excited to see the new and creative products that arrive on a regular basis. We love being able to share these products and all the imaginative ways they can be used with our customers. Our most recent favorite is a set of decorative tapes – so unusual and so multi-purpose. We immediately began coming up with ways to use this fun product!

We love this greeting card made by our associate Kate, which uses the woodgrain decorative tape along with chocolate 2.5” circle labels and the heat embossing technique. Kate applied the tape across the front of a folded card as well as to the outside flap of a chocolate envelope. Making greeting cards is a great way to use up odds and end scraps leftover from other projects, and these decorative tapes are great for no-mess crafting – this greeting card did not require any glue!

Our four decorative tape styles (also available in black damask, purple lace and chartreuse scrolls) feature various patterns and colors allowing you to create a completely different card with each. Decorative tape is also great (and easy) to use for gift wrapping…really the uses are endless!

–Paper Source Evanston Store Team
PS colors: curry & gravel
Latest fave: Eco Cups

A typical day in my life:
4:30am- get up, do yoga for ½ hour
5:00am- take shower
5:15am- walk dog
5:30am- drink coffee, watch the weather, get dressed
6:00-6:15am- leave for work, drop Gus off at Doggie daycare
7am-6pm- WORK-WORK-WORK
6:15pm- pick up Gus from Doggie daycare
7pm- whew! Finally get home, scramble to find something for dinner
7:30pm- eat dinner w/hubby, talk about Gus and what he did that day
8:30pm- watch a little T.V.
9:30pm- check my email
10pm- go to bed…. Read the rest of this entry »