Personalized Correspondence Cards

Thanks to all who took a guess about what might be in the box. There were some pretty clever suggestions! Yes - it is more custom stationery. I wanted to make a gift that was unique and obviously personalized for a certain individual (in other words - not just an initial), and, since I am so tired of winter, it had to be in spring colors!

I've made lots of A2 notecards but I thought I'd try something a bit larger - in fact, twice as large. I set up my Design Studio mat with an 8.5 x 5.5 rectangle (1/2 of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper). These are correspondence cards - not folded cards. I used circles to create a scalloped shape for the card.



After I had the basic card shape set up, I added letters. To have letters cut into the card without losing the centers of letters, you need to use a cartridge with a stencil font option. I looked through them quickly and found all of the following fonts that could work. Hello Kitty Font, Learning Curve, Don Juan, Alphalicious, Cursive 101, Doodletype, Making the Grade, Opposites Attract, Pooh Font, Printing 101, Printing Press, Zooballoo

There are a few more (such as Base Camp, Jasmine, Mini Monograms, Stamped & Tear Drop) which have some letters that will work but others that will not.



When you are setting up the letters to cut you will need to use the "hide contour" feature to make sure that only the letter itself will be cut. If there are detail or "webbing" lines (such as the directional instruction lines in the Printing 101 and Cursive 101 fonts) you will need to check weld to eliminate these lines from the cut.



It is also easier to use a letter with at least one other line in addition to the outline that can be hidden, otherwise, you will need to remember to rehide the outline contour each time you open the file (here is a LINK to the post where I explained this quirk in the software)



I made another box card folder to hold these correspondence cards. I needed to use two sheets of card stock due to the large size of the cards. I cut two pieces of cardstock t0 10 x 12 inches.



I used my Scor-Pal to score each piece at 1 and 1 1/2 inches on the 10 inch sides and at 1 inch on one of the 12 inch sides and 2 1/2 and 3 inches from the other 12 inch side.



After scoring and folding I cut away the corners to the inner score lines.



Then I rounded the corners as show above.



The box is assembled by connecting the two one inch spine sections. Then fold up the corners in the same way that I explained for the A2 folder (LINK to that post) and the 5 inch card folder (LINK to that post). Directions for adding the ribbon closures can also be found on those posts.



These are all of the cut out letters - I am thinking of adding one set of them to the box (similar to the monogram letters I did for the monogram cards I shared in January (here is a LINK to that post).



I used some pretty ribbon in a spring check pattern for the closure. I got this ribbon in a large spool of 50 yards at Costco (they often have nice ribbon at an unbeatable price, I paid $6.99 for this spool).



If you don't want to insert letters into the card, you can use the plain file and perhaps add some stamping or just use it to make simple A2 folded notecards.



These were cut from on sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock. You can then score them at 4.25 iniches and fold carefully, making sure to perfectly align the scallops.



The patterned card stock I used for the test cuts is two sided and a nice weight so with one simple cut you have some stationery ready to use. Of course, you could add embellishments if you want to make these "fancier."



Above you can see the "leftover" piece from the 12 x 12 paper. You can trim a 2 1/2 inch strip from the side and leave a double frame that could be used for a layout.



If you didn't want to use it the frame for a layout (maybe you are more of a card maker than a scrapbooker), you can cut it apart and use the scallop strips as trim for cards as I have suggested before.



You can cut the strip to add a partial lining to your note card envelopes - measure your envelope to double check but I think the standard width is 5 and 5/8 inches. Adhere the strip to the top of the envelope just below the flap fold.

Scalloped Correspondence Card - George

Scalloped Correspondence Card - Plantin Schoolbook

Card Folder for 5 x 5 cards.

I decided to see if I could design a box folder for the slightly larger square cards that many people make and to still cut it from one sheet of 12 x 12 card stock. I adapted my first design and came up with this variation for square cards. I think this is the largest size you can make using only one piece of card stock (so if you make 6 x 6 cards you will need to adapt either this design or the A2 design - there are lots of ways to approach this and achieve a similar result.

Several people asked me why I didn't make this design as a .cut file. I thought it was less trouble to just make the cuts with a trimmer - there are only five quick cuts to make for the basic pieces and most of the trimming is done near the edges so you would need to hand cut in the "uncuttable zone" to finish the cuts. I also was determined to make the folder using only one sheet of paper and to use it as efficiently as possible!

But never fear - JenC from the Cricut Message Board let me know that she did make a .cut file based on my design and you can visit her blog (Jen's Blog) to ask her for it if you prefer to make this with the Expression. You will need to use two pieces of paper.

Here is the diagram for the folder to hold 5 x 5 cards and envelopes (remember you can enlarge this by clicking on the photo so you can see the details better). The design is very similar to the A2 folder so I just have a few photos to show the steps that are a bit different. Here is a LINK to the post with all the steps for the A2 folder in case you need to refer to it to finish your box folder.



Below you can see how the sheet of card stock is cut



And in this photo you can see the two pieces that won't be used off to the side.



Score the 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 pieces at 1/2 inch and 1 inch as shown below



Fold these two pieces along the score lines as shown below



Score the large piece of cardstock at 1 inch and 1 1/2 inches from the twelve inch edge as shown below.



Then turn the paper and score in the center of the 12 inch dimension at 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 inches as shown



Fold on all score lines and then cut away the sections above and below the spine as shown below



Apply adhesive to the first 1/2 inch scored area of the side flap



Adhere the cover to the flap aligning carefully (it seems easier to bring the large piece over the smaller one and match the edge to the scored line - sorry for the funny shadow in the photo!).



Another view showing the flaps connected to the body of the folder. Be sure that the "seam" is on the inside of the folder and that you have the right side of the textured cardstock on the outside!



Corner round in the same positions as for the A2 folder and the resulting unassembled folder will look like this.



Assemble in the same fashion as the A2 folder and continue with the finishing steps, adhering ribbon to the spine if desired for a closure.

The finished box folder will look like this and you can decorate it as much or as little as you like!