Last week (OK, two weeks ago!) I made some business cards and I thought someone might be interested in how I did it. I already had card stock so I didn’t need to buy any supplies and by making smaller cards, I got twice as many as I would with standard 10-per-sheet business cards. Extra points for being budget friendly!
Here’s how I did it:
I made the card layout and saved it as a PDF, then dropped the PDF into Pages (iWork on the Mac) and copy & pasted the images and put them into the layout I wanted. I printed three pages onto heavy card stock.
Using my *old* rotary blade (not one I use for fabric) and ruler, I lined up the cuts. I tried to make sure the columns would all be the same size. My cards were going to be 2.75″ x 1.25″, so I cut 2.75″ from the left side.
Then I cut 2.75″ from the right side.
My middle column was too wide, so I chopped it down to 2.75″
Then, I stacked them up *carefully* so they didn’t shift and sliced 1.25″ cards using the ruler and mat to keep them as consistent as possible. I was most successful stacking only three of them. They won’t be perfect, but they are free so I’m OK with “really close”.
I found it was much easier to keep the ruler on the side of the stack that I wasn’t slicing off.
Finish slicing…
Not perfect, but pretty good, right?
That’s a pretty tall stack for minimal effort (if I don’t count the magenta toner exploding all over me!) Now I always have cards to hand out when someone asks about my bag!
Wow what a quick way to make your own business cards. I just twat this link !
Does it matter if I use the same rotary cutter blade which I use to cut my fabric? I don’t have any old blade :S
I would not use the same one you use for fabric on paper, as cutting paper will dull the blade. I would suggest buying a second handle when they go on sale. If you get the same size/style you currently have you can just keep moving your old fabric blades to the one that you use for paper, since they will cut paper after they stop cutting fabric. Otherwise just get the cheapest one they have (with a 40-50% off coupon of course!) and it will probably cut paper for a long time.
I have one of those scrapbook sliding paper cutters and I find this to be much faster and cleaner. I have also used those big paper slicers that teachers use and this is more accurate (because of the nice wide ruler!)
Any chance you could show a tute on making fabric labels. I make alot of bags and would like to put a small fabric label inside with my name. I like your bag on Sew Mama Sew. Thanks
Hi Marilyn! Thank you! If I ever make my own labels, I will be sure to post about it! But I just read a great post on how to make quilt labels the other day. You could definitely size these down for bags, plus you don’t have to worry about washing a bag like you would wash a quilt (I do wash my bags, but only 2-3 times before it’s time to make a new one!) Check it out over on LRstitched: https://lrstitched.com/2011/06/09/tutorial-print-your-own-quilt-labels/
You can also buy labels on Etsy fairly inexpensively. You might try searching on there.
Thanks for visiting!
[…] really need to just order some, but I can’t commit to what I want them to say, so I just used this method and cut them out using my ruler and rotary mat! Next time I might re-do the tutorial for standard […]
You need to post a PDF of your cards so WE can hand them out when people ask about our bags. ;-) Every day I get a comment on my bag (and not because the fabric is my college mascot). I’d really like an easy way to send people here! They are always asking me if I sell them and I tell them no, but you sell the patterns and anyone can do them!