Card Making 101--Chapter 2, Card Base

Hello! Welcome back to class, hehe. Today I’m going to be talking about creating a card base out of 8 ½” x 11” cardstock. Today I’m using a cream colored cardstock, by Recollections but feel free to use any paper or cardstock that you like; or, prefer—just make sure it’s the same size that I’m working with. We’re going to be using this paper to create what’s called an ‘A2 standard size’ card which measures at: 4 ¼” x 5 ½”. What’s so great about using the 8 ½” x 11” cardstock is that you can get two perfectly sized A2 cards out of one sheet of paper; and, you can create a tent style card or a book style card as well. If I’m losing you already feel free to scroll down while I explain more. 

In the picture above, I have the ‘tent’ style A2 size card which opens from the bottom, and I have the ‘book’ style card on the right that opens from the right. 

Here is a picture of the paper I’m using, I purchased this from Michaels, but feel free to use any type of paper or cardstock you can find. Even using computer paper works—it’s the same size as this card stock, shown in the image above. 

First I’m cutting a A2 tent style card; therefore, I’m laying the longest part of the card, vertically—with the paper trimmer.

 Next, using the paper trimmer, measure 4 ¼” and cut. This will give you two 4 ¼” x 11” pieces, shown in the image below. 

Next, you simply fold the card in half, creating a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” card base. Example of finished result shown below. 

A2 Book

Yay! Now we can move on to the A2 book style card. We start by laying the longest part of the card, horizontally.

Next, using the paper trimmer, measure 5 ½” and cut. This will give you two 5 ½” x 8 ½” pieces, as shown in the image below.

 Next, you simply fold the card in half, creating a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” card base.

There you have it! Two different style A2 size cards—now that the boring stuff is over we can finally start playing with our stamps and pattern paper, but that’ll have to wait until next Monday. I hope you’re enjoying this series as much as I am. I hope that this is helping someone is wants to learn the very basic skills for cardmaking. Thanks for stoppin' by :-p