Computer Crafting

Birthday card
with doors closed

Birthday card
with doors open

When most people think about computer crafting, they think of homemade greeting cards. That was one of the first and is still one of the most popular forms of computer crafts, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

You are not limited to cards. For example, click here for my Della Robia Wine Glass Collar pattern. These wine collars are becoming increasingly popular and are an easy to make computer craft project!

And, of course, you are not just limited to the Della Robia design. I’ve made them with zebra stripes, butterflies and flowers. Using one of the greeting card graphics programs recommended in Graphics Programs for Crafters, you can make your own wine glass collar designs for your personal use, for gifts, or even to sell.

However if you make them to sell, just be sure to check the copyright and terms of use information for your software. Most do not allow you to sell products using their designs. Some offer commercial licenses for a small extra charge. Read more about copyrights here.

Another free computer crafting pattern I have included on this website is Golden Leaves of Autumn place cards. Again, you can create you own designs for place cards, dressing them up with wet or dry embossing methods, as you desire.

One computer crafting idea that is a big seller with my customers is place cards that I print on glossy photographic paper. The gloss creates a totally different look and is particularly appropriate for holiday parties.

Print a border around the edge of the card. Place a design, like a sprig of holly or a holiday ornament just a bit below center. Before folding the place card in half, use a craft knife to cut out the part of the design above where the center fold will be. When you fold the card, the holly or ornament or whatever will stand up creating a dimensional aspect.

For many more computer crafting ideas, visit my page of patterns and templates Patterns for Your Computer Crafts, all professionally designed and compliments of the major printer manufacturers. You will find pages and pages of computer crafts projects for scrapbook pages, gift boxes, wrapping paper, Christmas ornaments, fabric patterns and much much more.

Yes, you can print on fabric. Quilting and Technology shows how quilters are using their computers to design and create outstanding original designs. Visit Bubble Jet Tips – How to Print on Fabric which discusses how to create affordable fabric sheets to print you own designs on.

[You can also add computer enhanced designs by using Lazertran Silk Decals.]

One of my biggest selling products takes advantage of this technique. Go to Customized Tote Bag Pattern to see this customized tote bag and find a pattern to make it.

But you can do more than just print a square logo. On Home Decorating Patterns you will find computer craft patterns to decorate your home or coordinate your dinner table, compliments of Good Housekeeping magazine and HP. Although these are designed for paper, they will also be quite attractive on fabric.

If you’re an artist, consider scanning you own drawings or paintings into your computer, instead of using the packaged designs contained in most greeting card graphics programs. Read How to Make an Artistic Calendar and other aricles I have written about adopting original art to cards and more.

Also you can create fancy handmade cards using exotic papers, pieces of fabric and ribbons. This kind of card is especially popular for invitations. They demand a premium price and are not difficult to market.

Or you can combine dry embossing and computer printing on my favorite media, manila folders, to make a classy note card.

Here is a picture I computer-enhanced for a local classical guitarist and singer. He is using it for newspaper ads, posters and his new CD cover.

With the growing popularity and affordability of digital cameras, a lot of people keep their precious photos on their hard drives or on CDs; and there they sit. What better reason to start a scrapbooking project than to rescue these photos from obscurity?

If you need templates or artwork for you pages, you can get them for free from the computer printer manufacturers as I mentioned before, or if you want more original ideas, use one of the greeting card graphics programs that I have recommended.

Also don’t forget collage and decoupage projects that can benefit from computer crafted or manipulated images. Go to The Art of Collage to see some samples.

Unfortunately, most consumer grade printers limit the size of your prints to 8.5” x 14”. You can get around this with a little glue and ingenuity. But if you feel cutting and pasting would compromise the quality of your product, put you file on a disk and take it to a business center, like Kinko’s, where you can get larger prints made.

Last, but not least is graphic design, which I cover in the Digital Scrapbooking section of this site. This has a bit of a steeper learning curve, but the results can be truly exciting.

Computer crafting is a vast field. You are only limited by your imagination!

I have collected all the articles on The Artful Crafter that are concerned with Computer Crafting here.

Please visit. It is a huge collection.

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