Running Your Crafts Business: How to Make Business Cards from Paper Scraps

paper scrap business cards tutorial (1 of 1)

If you’re running a crafts business, then you’ve got to have business cards.

And lots of them!

Aaaaand you probably don’t want to pay a lot.

With upcycling, it’s easy to make perfectly unique, eco-friendly business cards that advertise the style of your business while costing absolutely nothing.

These particular business cards are made from paper scraps, waste cardboard, and a DIY business card stamp set. They reduce the footprint of your business by removing scrap paper from the waste stream, cost nothing beyond a few minutes of your time, and are eminently customizable. Here’s how to make them:

1. Gather up paper scraps and waste cardboard. Even teeny-tiny scraps of paper work well for this project, so it’s a great one especially if you’re an artist who works with special or beautiful papers. I also think it’s nice to have my business cards reflect the specific products that I create, so I like to use the leftover bits from the same comic books, vintage sheet music, and damaged dictionaries that I’ve used to create my etsy products.

For cardboard, search out large-ish sheets that you can later cut down for your business cards. Food packaging, cardboard mailers, and record album covers all work well.

Adhere overlapping paper scraps to the cardboard piece, until it's completely covered.
Adhere overlapping paper scraps to the cardboard piece, until it’s completely covered.

2. Adhere the paper to the cardboard. Tear your papers into strips or small pieces, if they’re not already pretty tiny, and then adhere them, one-by-one and overlapping, to cover the cardboard.

I use spray mount for this project, but for an eco-friendly adhesive, use any natural glue with which you’re comfortable. You could also use double-sided tape to stick the papers to the cardboard, or even stitch them on, giving the finished piece a quilted look.

Work until the cardboard base is completely covered with paper scraps.

Cut the large piece of decoupaged cardboard into business cards.
Cut the large piece of decoupaged cardboard into business cards.

3. Cut the cardboard into business cards. Use a guillotine paper cutter to trim each large piece of cardboard into batches of business cards. Because the overlapping paper pieces are wonderfully random, each business card that you cut out will be unique.

And excellent.

4. Add your business info. Use a custom rubber stamp or DIY stamp set for this.

You don’t just have to make business cards using this method–it also makes wonderful postcards, Artist Trading Cards, and greeting cards (check out my cardboard greeting card tutorial for an easy method).

2 thoughts on “Running Your Crafts Business: How to Make Business Cards from Paper Scraps”

  1. I love this idea! We use a lot of sticker sheets here, so I always have thin strips of sticker paper. A few months ago I sat down with all the tiny strips and covered a cereal box post card with the stickers. It gave the post card a cool texture and lots of added visual interest. Then I sent it through the printer to print on of my scanned drawings on it. Came out so awesome!

    Thanks for this cool idea!

    1. I LOVE the idea of running it through your printer! I upgraded, a couple of years ago, to a fancy laser printer for all my thousands of school papers, but now I’m afraid to do any experimenting with it at all. I need to keep on the lookout for a beater inkjet printer to play with.

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