This is my hub bicentennial, so I decided to make a hub about one of my favorite topics, which is crafting. Making cards is one of my favorite crafting projects, and for this hub I decided to make a quarter fold card out of recycled paper. One side of the paper had been used for printing a few lines, so I decided to use the blank side for the card. Often people search the web for free card templates, but it is actually much easier to make your own quarter fold card.  These hand made creations are ideal for wedding invitations, birthday invitations, or when you just want to send a friend a thank you card. Take a look at the steps below to see how I created this fun tropical sunset card.

Personally I do not like to throw away my cards, but the reality is many people do.  So how can you help the environment when making greeting cards?  Try making a quarter fold card out of a piece of recycled paper.  Simply search through the house to see if you can find a piece of paper that has one used side, and one blank side.  The used side will be folded under and the blank side will be used for the outside and the inside of the new card.

Make sure the used portion is facing up before folding the page in half.  This way the card will be blank on the inside and the outside was the quarter fold is complete.

Fold the half fold into a quarter fold, which makes the card complete.  Now it is time to start drawing the design on the front of the quarter fold card.

In this step I completed drawing the tropical scene on my card.  These type of pictures happen to be some of my favorites because I have a total obsession with Hawaii and Polynesia.  I would love to spend more time there if I could.  These beautiful locales deserve to be commemorated on cards and other personalized art work.  Have I mentioned that I consider greeting cards to be some of the greatest art around?  Just take a look around etsy and see how many many derivations there are of gift card art.

During this step in the sequence I used the tangerine colored pencil to begin filling in the clouds of the sunset sky.

Finish blending in the tangerine colored pencil into the clouds of the sky.  This sunset is going to be beautiful and vibrant!

Use the magenta colored pencil to fill in the rest of the sky.  The contrast between the tangerine and the magenta would makes for a fun tropical sunset, and a paradisaical experience in a card!

As I finish adding the magenta, I also slightly blend it in with the tangerine clouds. The blending gives the sky a true sunset experience. Next, I will be shading in the shadowy parts of the sunset, which consists of the trees, flora, and fauna.

Use the black colored pencil to shade over the areas that have already been shaded in with pencil, which consist of the palm trees and other foliage.  The blending of the lead from a drawing pencil and the pigment from the black colored pencil creates the illusion of deep and rich shadows, which mimic those found in an actual sunsets.  This drawing is somewhat on the abstract side, but it is fun to experiment with art techniques that suit your taste.

The mixing together of magenta and tangerine colored pencils creates a beautiful ocean.  The drawing pencil was used to sketch out the light rippling, which also adds to the blending of the colors.  This was a fun card to create, which just goes to show how hand drawn items can actually be much more enjoyable than computer based ones.  Do not be afraid to get out some colored pencils and make your own card out of recycled paper today!