Kylie Bertucci

Don’t know where to start with stamping and card making?

If you’re looking at all the beautiful handmade cards online and thinking, “I’d love to do that, but where on earth do I begin?”, I understand why it can feel overwhelming.

There are so many products, techniques, measurements and ideas out there. But beginner card making really doesn’t need to be complicated.

In my recent Facebook livestream, I decided to take everything right back to the basics. We used the Simple Leaves Bundle to make two simple cards while talking through some of the things that can help when you’re learning to stamp and make cards for yourself.

And if you’ve been crafting for years, this is for you too. Sometimes it’s lovely to put the complicated projects aside and simply enjoy putting ink to paper.

Watch the Beginner Card Making Livestream

If you’d like to craft along with me, you can watch the full livestream below. I take you through the projects and share plenty of beginner stamping tips along the way.

Card Making for Beginners Doesn’t Need to Be Complicated

One of the things I talked about during the livestream was how overwhelming crafting can feel when you’re starting out.

What cardstock do you buy? How do you cut it? Which ink colours do you need? What happens when your stamped image doesn’t look right?

You certainly don’t need everything at once.

A simple project is a wonderful place to begin because you can concentrate on learning a few basic skills:

• cutting and folding a card base
• adding a simple cardstock layer
• inking and stamping an image
• stamping a sentiment
• using a punch
• adding dimension to your card

Once those things start to feel familiar, you can gradually add more techniques and supplies if you want to.

Learning How to Stamp

Stamping looks simple, but there is still a technique to learn when you first begin.

One of my tips in the livestream was to avoid rocking or wobbling your stamp. Ink your stamp, place it where you want it, push straight down confidently and then lift it straight back up.

And give yourself time to practise.

Not every stamped image is going to be perfect. Not every piece of cardstock will be cut perfectly. Things can go wonky, supplies occasionally misbehave, and sometimes you simply stamp it again.

That’s crafting!

You’re learning a new skill, and you don’t have to be perfect at it before you’re allowed to enjoy it.

A Simple Leaf Card with an Unexpected Colour Combination

For one of our cards, I wanted to show that leaves don’t have to dictate your colour palette.

I actually took my colour inspiration from the clothes I was wearing during the livestream. It gave us a combination I probably wouldn’t ordinarily have thought to put together, and that was part of the fun.

Looking around you for colour combinations is such a useful trick when you’re learning to make cards. Clothing, patterned paper and other everyday colour combinations can give you a starting point when you’re staring at your inks wondering what goes together.

For this card, we stamped the leaves in different colours, arranged them over a simply stamped background and added the sentiment.

Nothing overly complicated, but you still end up with a lovely handmade card.

Use the Supplies You Have

We also made another version using a different colour combination.

This is something I really want new stampers to remember: you don’t necessarily need the exact colours somebody else has used to recreate an idea.

Use the card as inspiration and then look at what you already have.

You can change the colours, move the leaves around or choose another suitable sentiment. You’re still learning the same basic techniques while beginning to make the project your own.

What Do You Need to Start Making Cards?

During the livestream we talked quite a bit about supplies for beginners, because this is where it can become very easy to feel as though you need to buy everything at once.

You don’t.

If you’re completely new to papercrafting, a kit can be a useful way to try crafting and see whether you enjoy it before building a collection of supplies.

When you’re ready to start creating cards from scratch, some of the useful basics we discussed included:

• a paper trimmer
• a bone folder
• basic cardstock
• a small selection of ink colours
• a versatile stamp set
• blocks for your stamps
• adhesive
• dimensionals
• paper snips
• something for cleaning your stamps

You can build from there gradually as you discover what you enjoy using.

Taking the Confusion Out of Card Measurements

Another big hurdle when I first started was measurements.

You find a card you want to make, but then discover the person demonstrating it is using a different cardstock size. Or you’re trying to work out layers and wondering how much smaller each piece is supposed to be.

It can make something that should be enjoyable feel unnecessarily complicated.

That’s why I created my card templates. They give you a visual reference for card bases and layers, so you don’t have to work everything out from scratch every time you sit down to create.

I still use my templates when I create because they make it much easier to look at a project, choose a layer and see whether the proportions feel right.

Simple Cards Are Still Beautiful Cards

I love an occasional crafting challenge, but I also love keeping things simple.

If every project feels as though it needs to be complicated, it can become another reason not to sit down and create at all.

These two Simple Leaves cards are a good reminder that you can take a few colours, some cardstock, stamps and a sentiment and simply enjoy the process.

If you’re a beginner, start small. Learn one thing at a time, practise your stamping and let yourself make mistakes along the way.

And if you’ve been making cards for years but everything is feeling a little overwhelming lately, perhaps it’s time to go back to the basics too.

Simple crafting can be exactly what we need sometimes.

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Shop the Stampin' Up! products used in this project.

Simply Leaves Bundle (English)	Basic White A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Pretty Peacock A4 Cardstock
Paper Trimmer	Paper Snips	Stampin'' Seal+	Multipurpose Liquid Glue
Stampin'' Dimensionals	Simply Shammy	Bone Folder	Secret Sea Classic Stampin'' Pad
Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Golden Glow Classic Stampin'' Pad	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin'' Pad	Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin'' Pad
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin'' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin'' Pad