Quality Control

i just wanted to say a few words about a pet subject of mine which is the Quality of Handmade cards out there. I see a lot of beautiful designs and ideas ruined because they've been put on a poor quality card or with a cheap business envelope. Here's a few tips which will improve the look of your cards, whether your just giving them to friends and family or selling them.

1. Use a good quality base card.
Lightweight or cheap card ruins the look of a nice card. The card should feel heavy and be able to support itself. The Card I use a lot is called Rusticus 200g, I buy this from Daintree in Camden St. Its a nice textured card which feels and looks good quality. They also cut it down to a particular size if you want and they have a scoring machine instore you can use.

2. Use a good quality envelope
The same applies as before a cheap envelope ruins a card, it looks disappointing and mundane before its even opened. The worst offenses are using white business envelopes, they look cheap against a nice card so spend the extra 10c and get a nice coloured or heavy weight envelope.

3. Don't add the kitchen sink
Less is more, if you have a really nice paper or embellishment let it speak for itself, Add too much and the beautiful details get overlooked.

4. Finish it properly
make sure your cards are cut right, Clean Fold Lines, No frayed ribbons and make sure everything is stuck down properly, I recently opened a card to have the label fall off in my hand. Double check everything before you put it in an envelope.

I think that covers it, Thanks for letting me rant.

Nichola