Making Handmade Business Cards

Recently I came across an intriguing project: making handmade business cards. I found it in Roxanne Padgett's fine book Acrylic Techniques in Mixed Media: Layer, Scribble, Stencil, Stamp. This appealed to me, so I gathered up a few supplies supplies and got ready to play.

Some of the handmade, hand painted business cards I made this past week.

The idea is to take a sheet of paper such as heavy card stock or watercolor paper and proceed to paint, collage, stamp and/or otherwise express yourself in various ways, then cut it into 2 x 3 1/2 inch pieces -- the dimensions for a standard business card. Apply a computer label printed with your contact information to the back of the card and you have a tiny work of art a recipient will be unlikely to discard. As an alternative to using labels you could simply print or write your contact info on the back if you have good penmanship.

Distinguish yourself

It's probably not feasible to make these cards in huge quantities, but it's nice to be able to hand one to someone you hope to make a lasting and favorable impression upon: a prospective collector, a journalist who's interviewing you, or a gallery director, perhaps. Receiving a piece of original art from the individual who made it automatically sets that artist apart from the crowd.

The first batch I made up (two in shades of violet and blue-green are shown in the photo's upper left hand corner) feature collage, but for subsequent batches I used paint only. I applied it in several ways, including washes, stenciling and stamping.

Fun Foam is FUN!

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this project was creating three small stamps using fun foam, which is readily available at craft stores. If you haven't tried this product yet you don't know how much fun you're missing. Fun foam cuts easily with scissors. The fun foam I used has adhesive on one side. Just cut out your design, press it onto a piece of mat board and you're ready to go. One design turned out so well I'm thinking of having it made into a mounted rubber stamp.

It's like making paintings

All told I ended up with 25 handmade business cards. I worked on 140 lb. watercolor paper (cut roughly to 8x10 inches) using a different palette of colors for each. Sure, it was more time consuming than ordering business cards on the Internet, but I found that creating the handmade cards was just as enjoyable as creating small paintings. So I feel like the investment of my time was worth it. Leftover scraps that weren't large enough to make a card with, I turned into bookmarks.

Have you ever made your own business cards from original art? If so, let's hear from you. Tell us what techniques you used to make them or how you've promoted your art with them. What has been recipients' reactions to them? Include an image of your handiwork and I'll happily post it here on the blog for all to admire and enjoy.

Text and image ©2014 Lynn Edwards