DIY Crafts: How to Make Greeting Cards from Record Album Covers

Handmade Stationery

Record Album Cover Greeting Cards (1 of 1)

You don’t send enough greeting cards.

And the greeting cards that you do send? I’m afraid that they may not always be awesome.

I can help.

If you’ve got any source of recycled cardboard that has a natural crease–think food packaging, USPS flat rate envelopes or other mailers, or the old record album covers that I’m using here–then you’ve got a natural greeting card just waiting for you to cut it to size, write in it, and mail it off!

my teeny-tiny business card-sized cards
my teeny-tiny business card-sized cards

1. Choose your size. Depending on the front image that will be shown, I’m cutting my greeting cards to either 4×5 or 5×7. I’m also making some business card-sized greeting cards to use with my etsy shop; these teeny cards also make good product labels and gift tags.

If you want to mail these greeting cards, make sure that you know the USPS standard envelope sizes. Although my 5×7 greeting cards can mail with standard postage, my 4×5 greeting cards will require an extra charge for being “nonmachinable.”

Trim the album to size.
Trim the album to size.

2. Trim to size. You’ll get the most professional appearance if you use a guillotine paper cutter, although you can, of course, cut these greeting cards by hand.

Making sure that the natural crease of the recycled cardboard is at the end that you’d like to serve as the greeting card’s hinge, and that the cardboard is folded in half at that crease so that you’ll be cutting through a double thickness, trim the cardboard to size.

3. Create a custom envelope. Using recycled paper, craft an envelope to fit the greeting card. Again make sure, if you’re mailing your card, that the envelope fits the USPS specifications. If I’m creating my envelope out of decorative paper, I write the recipient’s address on a white sticker or index card and adhere it to the front of the envelope.

Have leftover recycled cardboard? Make yourself some DIY business cards!

2 thoughts on “DIY Crafts: How to Make Greeting Cards from Record Album Covers”

  1. I love the idea of re-using old album covers. There are hundreds for sale at every thrift store I visit, and the art is so fun they certainly deserve a second life.

    I’ve tried making blank book covers and boxes out of them. As a variation on the greeting card idea, I’m thinking it would be fun to make simple postcards. I might glue a sheet of white paper on the reverse side, to make it easier to create a messages.

    Here’s how I made a box out of an album cover, fyi:
    http://creativeupcycling.blogspot.com/2011/12/making-gift-box-out-of-vintage-holiday.html

    1. Love the box! We listen to records over here, so we’re always collecting records from thrift stores and yard sales. Unfortunately, people just don’t know how to store records anymore, and so most of the records that we rescue are just unplayable, all scratched and warped and sad.

      And that’s how record crafts are born!

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