Custom Cards for the Dancer in Your Life...

     The kids are still asleep, so I thought I'd travel back in time a bit and share some greeting card designs I made to sell at the dance team's gift table during the competition they hosted a couple months ago.  These cards literally sold out within a couple hours, so either I priced them too low ($1 each) or everyone just really liked them... I think I'll go with that!  So, as long as you have a computer, a printer, white glue, glitter and toothpicks you can make some too.  Here's what I did...
     
     First, I found some inexpensive small (4"x 5 1/2") blank cards on sale at JoAnn's in white, ivory and natural ($3.99 for 12). Then using my trusty PrintShop2 program (I've mentioned how much I like this program before, but it's really handy!), I designed very simple layouts that I could then embellish with fine glitter. I printed all the designs in black and white, and used mostly silhouettes or straight graphics of dance quotes for the card covers.  As I'm sure you can imagine, you can find lots of dance themed or inspirational quotes with a Google search but I also added some slang terms for the teens.  For an added touch, I put a little logo on the back on the card since it was a fundraiser thanking customers for their support. Once they were printed, I used white Elmer's glue and a toothpick to 'paint' the area I wanted glittered. I've got to say this was pretty darn fun, and since I have a fashion design background it really had my creative juices flowing on the dress form designs in particular.  You'll want to practice a bit first, but for the most part I just went for it! The tutus are especially fun, just use a dragging technique with the toothpick by picking up a blob (for lack of a better word) of glue and dragging it in an outward direction.  I also had some loose sequins around and glued those on to some of the cards, which looked pretty cool too. And, of course, a satin ribbon bow made the perfect finishing touch on some of the tutus!  When designing all the different costumes, I tried to incorporate common costume designs for different dance styles to reach a broad audience...and when you've been to as many competitions as I have, that shouldn't be hard! For a professional look and to protect the cards from fingerprints, I slipped each one into a cellophane bag, also purchased at JoAnn's.  

    Oh, and when our end-of-year dance banquet rolled around, I made cards for the coaches with my daughter's team state competition costume on them.  Which got me thinking, next year I can make a set for the whole team to wish them luck!  So here's a look at a selection of the finished product...hope you make some of your own!