Learn how to make a customized card for your loved one. It's fairly easy once you break it down.

It will serve as an art piece for many years to come.

Step 1: Getting Ready

Determine the size of card you want to make. Here I am using a piece of cardstock A7 - 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" folded in half.

Gather:

Cardstock,

Sketch paper,

Pencil and eraser,

Ink pen,

Color paper scrap pieces

Scissors

Glue Stick

Step 2: Card Prep

Fold your cardstock in half to create a card.

Trace the card onto sketch paper so that you can draw out your design so that it will fit nicely on the face of your card.

Step 3: Sketch and Ink

Sketch out your design.

Things to keep in mind:

Think about simple shapes, think about how you are going to create depth by over lapping shapes.

You don't want the card to be too busy either.

Step 4: Shape Making

Cut out shapes from fun colored paper.

Try to make the shape line up with the drawing you made.

Make note of how you're overlapping to make sure you get the depth you want to create.

Step 5: Smaller Shapes

As you get the main pieces cut, you will need to start adding detail shapes.

Consider which shapes will work better as simply marker strokes or paper.

For instance, for the body shading, it works better to use a marker to add dimension. You may also cut out these shapes as a darker skin color but you will be dealing with very tiny pieces of paper.

Hair is a shape you can still cut out of paper so it makes sense to draw it out in proportion to the head. You can sketch on the paper and erase lines after you get the hair shape cut out.

Clothing should also be cut out of paper when ever possible.

You can always add shading to the hair and clothing with a marker.

Step 6: Assembly

Start assembling from background to foreground.

A plain old glue stick works perfectly for attaching pieces.

If you have texture-print scrapbook paper (example: rocks), add it where it is appropriate. It adds some fun texture and dimension.

Step 7: Assembly II

Keep working by laying pieces - going from background to foreground. If something falls off the edge of the face of the card, snip it with scissors so it lies flush with the edge of the card face.

Add details with marker where it makes sense.

Tip: Closed eyes accented with a simple black marker works really well and goes really fast. Think of drawing the eyes like this " ^ ^". Simply just add a little eyelash at the ends.

Step 8: Details

Add the small details with markers. Here, I did peach colored cheeks and added white highlights on cheeks, the nose and anywhere that would get a little glimmer of light.

I added bubbles with a white gel pen.