Art Tips By Stephie (Germany)

So let’s say I read a recipient’s bio and they say they love bees. My first thought is whether I already have a matching card or some crafting materials that match this theme, like bee stickers or a paper with a honeycomb pattern. If I happen to have a patterned paper or stamp set from a popular crafting brand, I might google photos of the product names to see how other crafters used these for inspiration.

If I don’t have any specific materials, I might look for DIY ideas and instructions online – there are lots of great step-by-step tutorials on blogs and YouTube. My go-to google prompt for this is “easy DIY card bees” (or whatever theme I’m looking for).

Sometimes I already have an idea in mind of how I want the card to look, but I could use some ideas for a sentiment. Then I often just google “greeting card bees” to find examples for sentiments. As I have a spot soft for puns, I’ll go for “I BEElieve in you”.

If I want to draw a bee, I might look for some reference pictures online too. So I’ll google “bee cute drawing” or something like that and look at a couple reference pictures.

At this point I’ll probably have at least one picture and a sentiment, and I’ll play around a bit to choose the card layout. If the picture and sentiment are cut out paper pieces, I can just move them around on my desk, and if I want to draw it all, I’ll start with a pencil sketch (later to be erased) to make sure all the elements fit nicely onto the card.

Last step I often add a frame in a different color by just sticking a slightly bigger piece of cardstock or construction paper under the main picture. Totally optional, but I like it and it adds a bit of a 3D look too. Just have to be careful it doesn’t get too heavy for the postage.

Then I’ll put the whole thing on a blank folded card. Choosing the colors for this is the task that often takes most time. I spend way too much time just trying out different combinations of colored cardstock or patterned papers.

And if I’m really happy with the result in the end and I have enough supplies, I might just make 3 more cards with a similar design because those will be much faster than the first one.