Make Stationery

If you are looking to give your cards and notes a more personal touch, consider making your own stationary. With supplies that are readily available, you can make cards, notes, and other paper products that send a message while also reflecting your taste and artistic ability. Get your hands on the right kind of paper, get creative with your designs, and get to work.

Steps

Making the Cards

1. Get the right paper. For your own stationary, you will need to get certain kinds of paper to give it a special look, and handle any decorations you come up with. Look for high-quality typewriter paper or specially designated craft paper. You should be able to find some at craft stores, and even some office supply stores.
2. Set up your workstation. Before doing any work on paper, or later decorations, make sure you have an area to work. Find somewhere with plenty of space for you to operate and place all of your supplies within easy reach.
   • If you are using chemicals, even things like glue and paint that can get over valuables or other items, make sure you cover your workspace with newspaper to prevent them from getting all over other things.
   • If you are using chemicals with a particularly strong odor, or don’t have a well-ventilated area inside, consider going outside, or at least into a place like a garage. Just be careful not to let chemicals like paint onto the ground, and be prepared for wind that may blow your materials around.
3. Print your text. If you are going to include specific writing on your stationary, you may want to print it directly on to the paper. This can be helpful if you have a lot of text, or are making a lot of stationary. Typing and printing will help fit the text on your paper, make sure it fits, and give you a more consistent look.
   • If you are printing, make sure your printer is able to handle the paper you intend to use for your stationary. If not, you may consider getting your notes printed through an outside printer, or using different paper.
   • This can be a good step for something like a wedding invitation, where you have a lot of information that needs to be included, and a long list of people who need to receive it.
4. Treat the paper. If you are going to add outside materials like paint, stamps, or other things, consider giving your paper some treatment so they are better prepared to paint and other liquids from leaking through paper and ruining any text on the inside. Spray a fixative to prevent smudging, like Krylon, over the outside, and let it dry before doing other decoration work.
   • Another way to treat the paper before adding decoration is to soak it in coffee to give it an aged or vintage look. Brew a pot of coffee or black tea, then let your paper soak in it. Remove once the paper is a shade or two lighter than you would like it to be, then hang to let it dry.

Decorating Your Stationary

1. Use a monogram. One simple and classy addition to your own stationary is the addition of letters, such as your initials, or maybe just the first letter of your first or last name. Using a linoleum block, you can make a nice stamp with your initials. You should be able to find all the tools for this stamp in a craft store.
   • Sketch out your monogram or design it in a word-processing program.
   • Trace a pencil over your printed monogram, then lay it face down on a linoleum block.
   • Scribble over the block to transfer those pencil lines to the block.
   • Use a linoleum knife to cut the shape into the block (deep, but not all the way through), then cut the monogram out of the block to create a stamp.
2. Put on pictures. Placing a picture or photograph on the front of a card can make more personal, especially if the picture has some meaning to both you and the recipient. Print out a picture of your choosing, and glue it to the front of a card.
   • Your picture can be on any type of paper you would like, though you may want to avoid high quality glossy photo paper, especially if you are making a lot of cards, as it can be quite expensive.
   • You can also add the look of a frame to your pictures by cutting out some colored paper and placing that underneath your picture. Different colors or adding more than one border gives you some flexibility in designs. Just make sure your picture doesn’t take up the entire front of your card so there is room for the border.
3. Make a leaf stamp. Using bright green leaves you can find in nature, you can add a natural look to paper. Place the leaf on your paper with a lightweight white paper towel on top. Gently hammer the spot where the leaf is until you see the green soak through the paper towel. Pull off the towel, gentle remove the leaf from the paper, and let it dry.
   • There are many different leaves out there which will give you many different kinds of greens. Go ahead and experiment with different types until you get a shade and shape that you like.
4. Sew on fabric. To add a touch of color, you can add small squares of fabric to the front of your cards. Cut out a square of fabric, making sure it is not bigger than your actual card. Stich it to the card using sewing machine or sewing by hand.
   • This will probably give you a bunch of cards that all look slightly different, rather than being uniform, unless you have a lot of some kind of fabric. This can also be a good way to get rid of excess fabric without just throwing it away.
5. Add scents. You can also add some slight scents to make your card stand out and be a pleasant surprise for the recipient. Take some cotton pads, and add a few drops of a scent you like, such as scented oils or perfume. Put the cotton pads at the bottom of a plastic container, then cover the pads with a piece of cardstock. Spread your stationary on top of the cardstock and close the top for 24 hours. You can repeat by adding more oil to the cotton pads to get a stronger scent.
   • The cardstock is important because you don’t want the oils to get directly on your paper and damage it. All you want is the smell, not the liquid.

Tips

• Remember that this is your personalized stationary, so the designs and additions can be entirely of your own choosing. You can mix and match, or try to come up with other additions on your own.
• If you don’t feel particularly crafty, many office supply and craft stores will let you design and print your own stationary styles through their available templates. Your range of designs will be more limited, and you can always add things to it later, but your stationary will be made to order and can be produced in larger quantities.
• You may also consider getting envelopes for your cards in order to send them places. Whether you buy them or make them yourself, just make sure that your cards or paper can fit into them when folded. You can also decorate envelopes in the same way you did the card or letter paper. Just make sure that you include space for important information like the sending and return addresses and stamps if you intend to mail them.

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