Handmade Stationary Ideas
Start with a paper you like. You can find a wide variety of paper at hobby and craft stores, handmade papers, colored “printer” paper (standard weight paper that works well in any computer printer), even a variety of card stocks, if you want to make your own note cards or postcards as well. You can also use plain, white copy paper, if you choose. The paper you choose depends solely on what kind of stationary you want to make.
Business Stationary
If you run your own business, perhaps from a home office, you may want stationary to represent your business. Printing business stationary, or more appropriately, letterhead, on a computer is, generally, going to produce the most official looking results. Begin with an off-white paper; subtle cream tones produce less glare and are easier to read from than bright white paper. In the upper left corner of the paper, insert your business logo. Directly beneath that include all necessary contact information; the main contact person (if you have multiple employees), primary and secondary (if applicable) phone number, fax number (if applicable), email, website, physical and mailing addresses (if different).
Select a font that is creative but still professional and easy to read. A standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman will not make your letterhead stand out and it will end up looking like nothing more than the proper business-letter heading. On the other hand, you will want to shy away from script fonts that resemble cursive handwriting, as these tend to be difficult to read. Good examples of common fonts that are professional, easy to read, and offer an appropriate level of creativity, are Georgia, Courier New, and Comic Sans MS (plain). Even if you are promoting a day care center, or a science-fiction book store, simple, easy to read fonts are best for your contact information; let a graphic or logo speak for the business itself. You may be working with kids or alternative teenagers but you are still running a legitimate business and want your “adult” clientele to know that.
Personal Stationary
Personal stationary is where you can go hog-wild and be as creative as you want to be. As long as you keep your design two-dimensional, any sort of craft tool is fair game in creating your stationary. Your first, and biggest, decision, is what kind of stationary do you want? Do you want something classy and elegant, whimsical and fantastical, fun and flirty? Once you have made that decision, head out to your local craft store.
As I said, any craft tool is fair game, however some things are not as practical as others. Stickers, for example, can get rather pricey, if you are looking to make more than a few sheets of stationary. However, you may find a set of stickers you simply cannot live without. Use those to accent your stationary. Perhaps to seal the envelop at the end.
My favorite place to look when creating stationary is the rubber stamp section. There is a lot of opportunity with rubber stamps. Try this. Choose a stamp that accurately displays your personality (I chose a Celtic knot for my life as a storyteller and for my Irish heritage) and a white ink pad. In the same section you will find tiny jars of glittery powder, embossing powder. You will also need a heating tool, which you can pick up at the same store (sometimes in the same department), generally, for under $10.
Using the white ink just as you would a colored pad, decorate your paper with the stamp. Be sure to heavily ink the stamp to get a good amount on the paper. While the ink is still wet, coat with enough embossing powder to cover the design and shake off excess. A creased sheet of 8.5×11 paper works well as a powder receptacle, the crease serves to neatly pour the powder back into the jar when you are done. Use the heat tool to melt the embossing powder to the paper. The end result is a shiny, slightly raised design. This is also a great way to seal envelopes, with an initial stamp, or any design of rubber stamp, for that matter.
Embossing is a great way to make elegant, yet still somewhat flashy stationary. If glitter and flash aren’t your thing, stay in the rubber stamp section of the store and find a couple of different stamps for our next design idea. Select an initial stamp to represent you (last name or first, you decide) and a small border stamp relatively the same size, slightly larger is good too, as the initial stamp. You will want two different colors of ink. Darker colors will be more masculine, while lighter, pastel colors are more feminine. A combination of light and dark will also work well, for example, a lavender ink paired with a forest green.
Stamp first with the border stamp in one color. These come in a wide variety, from Celtic knot work to vines to geometric patterns, so you are sure to find one you like, as well as one that suits the monogram initial that you have selected. Vines, for example, will go well with a scripted style letter. Then, with the monogram stamp, stamp directly in the center of your border stamp. Do this as often as you want; once in one corner, once in each corner, or make a border around the page with the pattern you have created (this design will be very time consuming so be forewarned).
Combine these techniques for yet another look. Use markers especially designed for use on rubber stamps to create a varied color effect (or in the case of stamps representing cartoon characters or animals, to create their personality). If you find a package of stickers in the craft store that you just can’t pass up, there is a simple way to make a collection of stationary using the stickers without having to buy enough stickers to make the amount of stationary you want.
Let’s say, for example, the stickers you have found are a collection of various flowers. If the flowers already come with stems, you are all set and ready to go. If not, you can draw stems with markers or use a rubber stamp with a flower design. If you use a rubber stamp, stamp the image on the paper first, in green ink, of course, then stick the flowers to the top of the stems. You may also find stem stickers, or other flower stickers you aren’t particularly fond of but which have stems you could use (it’s always okay to cut and alter stickers). Find, finally a bow sticker and you are ready to go.
Create the image you want, in this case we are making a bouquet of flowers, and then take this “prototype” to a copy center. Single-sided color copies are generally between fifteen and twenty-five cents per page. Give them the prototype and have them make as many color copies as you want to have on hand. Be sure you keep the original in case you want to make more copies in the future (it is always best to make additional copies out of the original and not from one of the copies). One last minute tip about working with stickers: if you are making your sticker collage on colored paper, be sure to either look for stickers without white edges or cut away any white edges from stickers before placing them on the paper.
These ideas will also work on card stock to make postcards and note cards, envelopes and much more. Use white or light colored ink and a rubber stamp to personalize a pad of sticky notes or small memo book for yourself or as a gift. Soon, you will be having so much fun making your own personalized stationary that you’ll never want to buy from a store again.
