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Business Card Idea: Hand Stitched Price Tag

Published: October 8, 2013; Updated: March 27, 2019 Filed Under: Design, Marketing

Hand made business card

If your business is arts and crafts related you might be interested in these hand made business cards. I use them whenever I sell artwork in locally.

These were created for the purposes of selling canvas paintings I’d made, and were meant to double up as price tags.

Artists, photographers and wedding planners might find value in the DIY guide I am presenting. You don’t have to copy the exact formula, but do consider duplicating the idea itself.

This guide assumes you know how to use Photoshop, and are familiar with a craft knife and a cutting mat.

Create PhotoShop Canvas, Import Artwork

Decide the size of your business card, set at least 300dpi resolution, choose dimensions and import your logo.

This logo is something I designed years ago and saved on my computer in high res.

Use Photoshop guides to create margins and central points of origin.

PhotoShop Canvas

Click for larger view

Create Pilot Hole for Stitching

Use the PhotoShop type tool to create faint grey dots or full stops around the edges of the business card. Later, these will be used for piercing the card with a pin, so a needle and thread can be used to sew the edges.

For demonstration purposes, I’ve made the dots much darker to show up in this image but they only need to be light enough to see when printed on paper.

Photoshop Canvas

Click for larger view

Create Reverse Side

You can create a duplicate of what you already have and use that for the backside of the business card.

PhotoShop Canvas

Click for larger view

Duplicate Template Designs Multiple Times

If printing to A4 paper, do the maths and figure out how many you can get on one sheet of paper.

PhotoShop Canvas

Click for larger view

InkJet

If you use a high enough ink setting, you can use an inkjet printer for your designs.

Inkjet printer

My Epson SX 215 printer

Choose Good Quality Paper

In this example the designs are printed on vellum (plasticized cotton) cream/ivory coloured premium laser and inkjet printer paper with a finely ridged surface. The paper weight is 100 gsm.

Conqueror paper

This is the paper I used. It is very good quality.

You can find this product on Amazon (affiliate link, new window)

I cannot remember how much I paid for this “Conqueror” paper but it was not cheap. I originally bought a few packs of it around 2006 for sending important letters or making job applications.

It is of ideal quality for this project.

Surgical Blade

You need a clean sharp blade. Handle with care. Wrap old blades in masking tape and discard.

Surgical blade

You can get craft knives/blades on eBay cheaply

Self Healing Cutting Mat

 

If you expect to be doing a lot of crafting, consider getting a self healing cutting mat (Amazon link). They’re also great to use as PC mouse pads!

Cutting Mat

Highly recommended for artists and craftspeople

The cardboard back of a sketchbook will do if you do not have a proper cutting mat.

Back of sketchbook

Cut Out Your Designs

Trim the borders away. A sharp clean blade is most important here. Use a metal ruler for this task.

Trim the borders

Cut out designs

Cut Out the Card Shape

Measure out a rectangle a few mm larger than your Photoshop image. Use thick card, around 250gsm. It’s important that there is some thickness.

Thick watercolour painting card may suffice. Be resourceful.

Measure card

Make the Pilot Holes for the Stitches

You want to line up the paper with card and then fasten it all together with four paperclips.

This will hold everything steady while you carefully press a thumb pin firmly into the card to create the holes.

Pilot Holes

Begin pressing a board pin into each dot that forms the border.

Make the pilot holes
At this stage it’s a good idea to use the self healing cutting mat if you have one.

Don’t remove the paper clips otherwise your business card falls apart, like this…

Card fall apart

Keep the paper clips ON the card while stitching

Needle & Thread

Find some thread or cotton of appropriate colour.

Needle and thread

Double up the cotton for added strength and thread through the eye of the needle, tying off at the bottom. Make a nice knot.

Cotton thread and needle

As you stitch the border, move the paperclips accordingly. Do not remove them completely or everything will fall apart.

Paperclips secure fastening
Just make way for each of your stitches. Tie off the loose end wherever you started. The top middle is best.

Remove Paperclips

You may want to add string or something extra like string or eyelets. To add string, tie on to one of the stitches.

Finished product

Finished

That is it. See if you can’t create a nice business card in a similar manner. I guarantee the effort you put into these things will always get a smile and a positive reaction.

Don’t let them get bent out of shape. Keep them in a plastic business card holder so they do not get knocked or dog eared.

If you have creative ideas for arts and crafts you’d like to share, let me know! It’s always cool to see what people can create, especially when they improvise due to a low budget.

If necessity is the mother of invention, creativity is the father. 😀

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Filed Under: Design, Marketing Tagged With: Brand, Business Cards, Marketing

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