Behind the Scenes: Creating a Cut Paper Holiday Card with Shutterfly

I love cre­at­ing illus­tra­tions in cut paper col­lage; this past sum­mer, I made a self por­trait using hand-paint­ed papers that’s my social media avatar. So, when Shut­ter­fly approached me about their cus­tomized hol­i­day cards, I instant­ly thought about mak­ing a col­lage for the cover.

After some brain­storm­ing, I cre­at­ed a sketch that imag­ines my two cats, Sadie and Pauline, as curi­ous (and hun­gry) kit­ties ready for a snack. And what is the treat, you ask? Gin­ger­bread cook­ies fash­ioned as me and my boyfriend, Chris. Just like the cut paper self por­trait, I made a video of my process that details the work that went into this project.

Creating the illustration

For tools, I used:

• A nice (sharp) pair of scis­sors that are for paper ONLY. (Any­thing else will dull them over time.)
• PVA book bind­ing glue. This is per­ma­nent and not very for­giv­ing, so once some­thing is down, it’s down. I use a tiny brush to apply.
• X‑Acto knife
• Self-heal­ing cut­ting mat
• For paint­ing on paper, I prime bristol—something with enough weight that it’s not going to curl—with Liq­ui­tex Mat­te Medium

Orga­ni­za­tion is almost as impor­tant as cre­at­ing a great sketch. Although my work­space looks messy (at times), I always assess my paper stash before begin­ning and deter­mine what col­ors and tex­tures I want to use. If I need a spe­cif­ic col­or or tex­ture, I usu­al­ly paint with acrylic or col­or on paper with col­ored pencils.

Ordering cards on Shutterfly

Com­plet­ing my illus­tra­tion was just half of my card-mak­ing  jour­ney. After­wards, I scanned it into my com­put­er and head­ed over to Shut­ter­fly. Although they have a bevy of card designs, there’s an option to upload your own 5″ x 7″ design. From here, I was able to pre­view how my image would look and write a cus­tom mes­sage inside. (You can upload a pho­to on the inside, too.)

In pre­vi­ous years, I’ve cre­at­ed my own col­lage hol­i­day cards, but the Shut­ter­fly expe­ri­ence was def­i­nite­ly my favorite. The process was super easy, and I love how you can con­trol near­ly every aspect of your card—from inte­ri­or mes­sage to envelopes. I’m so hap­py with the final result. The col­ors are true to my orig­i­nal illus­tra­tion and the mat­te-fin­ish looks great.

There’s still time to order your set of hol­i­day cards! Head on over to Shut­ter­fly to cus­tomize your stationary.

This post was sponsored by Shutterfly. All opinions and pictures are my own.