Hello everyone!

 

Today I'm making a standing new year greeting card using my original characters. You can use them as gift or decorate your desk. Let's start!

1. WHAT YOU NEED

• Your hand drawn or printed digital picture, in different parts. Read the instruction below.

• Cardboard (I use old cardboard shipping boxes)

• Glue or double-sided tape, glue gun if you have it

• Scissors, x-acto knife, cutting mat, ruler

2. DRAW THE PICTURE WITH CLIP STUDIO PAINT

Open Clip Studio Paint. I use the iPad version.

Make a file with the size of the paper used by your printer. In my case it's A4 (297x210mm). 300dpi is good enough for color print.

Then using the Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle with the dimension of your card. Use the ruler to assist.

I draw my sketch on new layers, one for background and one for characters.

Base on my sketches, I draw each element of the picture in a separate layer. I can merge them later if I want.

I got the firework brush on Clip Studio Asset. Thanks lie., author of the brush!

The drawing is finished, but you have to prepare a bit more before making it into a layered greeting card.

3. PREPARE FOR PRINTING

Move each element so that you can cut them out after printing, using multiple page if needed.

Export the images as .jpeg file. iPad user need to go to the Files app after saving; there you can send them to a cloud storage service or email them to print.

I printed my drawing at a cheap store so the quality isn't very good. I actually messed up with my layers so the handrail now is on the sky :( Check the layers carefully so you won't be like me.

 

Print the drawing on heavy paper if possible.

4. MAKE THE LAYERED CARD

I use a pencil to draw some extra paper tabs on the buildings and the cats pieces, to glue them to the card's base. When cutting the pieces out, be sure not to cut the paper tabs.

I use old cardboard box to make the card. Use double-sided tape or glue to stick the cover to the cardboard. Then use a knife and ruler to cut the cardboard. Be careful with the knife, don't try to press too hard; just relax your hand and cut it over and over multiple time.

Use the cardboard cover you've cut out to measure and cut 2 other cardboard pieces with a rectangular hole in the middle, and a back cover without hole (I use thinner cardboard for the back).

Stick the sky onto the back cover.

This is our card before gluing:

Glue the layers together.

The pieces are glued together. If you want, you can make a stand for your card using a triangle piece of cardboard.

Like this!

You can see the layers more clearly here. You'll have better effect if you use thicker cardboard, mine is a bit thin. You can even make more layers than this, there is no limit.

The finished card:

Hope you find this tutorial useful!

If you like the tutorial, you can visit me here:

Thanks for reading!