Card making is a paper artist's delight. There is no right or wrong, just creativity at its best. How does one go about designing a card with ease? CottageArts.net has made this task very simple with matching papers and elements on all the CDs and Page Paks. A great place to get started is with our Simply Celebrations CD, as it's loaded with papers, embellishments, and AlphaSets for any occasion and each is already categorized for you into coordinating page paks for birthdays, holidays, and events.

The first step in the card making process is choosing the right paper to meet the mood of the card.  Scan your CDs (most have a printable PDF image catalog in the help file) and Page Paks to find the perfect paper. Now choose another paper to add as an accent either underneath your focal point or at the top, side or bottom of the card.  Crop this piece to the desired size. Next, browse the matching elements and choose a focal piece. Continue moving layers around, resizing, rotating or even changing colors until you have a pleasing design, adding more elements and/or papers, if desired.  There's lots of great word art to choose from too, and for those into finding the perfect sentiment try our Simply Stated CD, with over 100 sentiments from Thena Smith and Michelle Shefveland!

 

The process just described outlined steps for creating a digital card, which will be printed flat on one end of the cardstock and then folded.  If you prefer to design your cards in three dimensional paper form, the process is the same - just print your papers and elements first.  Cut pieces to desired size and add cardstock, rubber stamps, eyelets, brads, etc...  It's that easy!

 

Like with any new endeavor, this process may take some practice but ask yourself - so what if it's not perfect?  The greatest of artists all must strike a balance between technical proficiency and passion for their art.  It is the passion that makes the music sing and the dancers fly.  Let your spirit soar in your creative process and don't get caught up in the notion of perfection.  Truly, there is no such thing and perfect in this process and it is all about the passion! Plus, I've found with card making that anything I perceive as a mistake can be covered up with another embellishment!