Regiftable cards

My friends occasionally ask me what they should do with the birthday cards I make for them. On receiving this card, my friend Caroline said, “It’s just too nice to toss out, but I don’t often save cards.” I told her that it was okay if she wanted to paste a sheet of paper over the message I’d written inside, and pass it along to someone else.

That got me to thinking, should I make cards for people that are specially designed for “re-carding”? I have a friend who is an ardent environmentalist, and although she is too polite to say anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if she inwardly groans at the ‘waste’ in some of my multi-layered creations. So I decided to create a more environmentally friendly card, just for her.

Images (c) Stampin’ Up!

In this card, I made sure not to use any layers, just images stamped directly on the card base. I used an image of an environmentally friendly bicycle built for two, and used a generic greeting that is appropriate for all sorts of occasions. There are a few flaws in the card – I forgot to clean my border stamp before re-inking it in a new colour (oops) and stamping on my base, but I decided to go with it instead of reaching for a new piece of cardstock. Good for me, right?

My real innovation though, was on the inside. To make it easier to re-use the card, I made photo corners from scrap paper, and used them to hold down a stack of paper for writing personal messages on. Each sheet of 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 paper can be removed by the recipient of the card, and the sheet underneath can be used for the next greeting.

Here’s how I made the message pad.

Technique Tutorial – Re-giftable cards

1. Punch four large photo corners out of card stock.  If desired, round the sharp corners with a corner rounder punch.
2. Using a ruler and a bone folder, score along each “arm” of the photo corners.
3. Fold the “arms” under and behind the corner, to create a pocket.
4. Use adhesive, such as a glue dot, between the two arms, and on the back of the pocket.  Be sure NOT to adhere the arms to the top layer (front) of the pocket.
5. Cut one piece of 8 1/2 x 11 printer paper into 8 pieces of 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 paper, and stack.
6. Use four completed pockets to hold down the stack of 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 papers.