DIY // hand stamped business cards

As a creative, I feel just a tiny bit cheated when asked for a business card. How am I supposed to adequately explain what I do within the confines of this little 2.5″ by 2.5″ square, or better yet, how do I convince you that it will be worth your time to go check out my work? Let’s be honest. How many times does a business card you receive end up sitting in your wallet for weeks ignored, and then eventually the trash?

That realization hit me pretty early on in my creative self employment, and so it came across my radar to create business cards that stood out. Cards that in some way, showed the recipient why my business was different or valuable.

My very first business card for photography was hand stamped, then for about a year I used these cards from moo.com that had some of my favorite images printed on one side of them, and finally I came back to hand stamped when I decided I wanted something that was minimal but stood out. When it was finally time to make business cards for wildlyspun.com, I knew that I’d go the hand stamped route, and I’m here to share with you the simple steps if you want to make some of your own.

I love hand stamped cards for their versatility, and also cost effectiveness. The more you use the stamp, the more value you get out of them.

There’s many amazing shops on etsy that make customized stamps, but I found one I really liked for her quick turn around time, quality stamps, and great customer service. Check out hootowlpress on etsy here. I ordered a 2.5″ by 2.5″ inch stamp for these cards, though it’s not the one pictured…that one just makes a cute prop ;)

I also like having a very thick card stock because they not only make an impression, but they also feel a lot like letterpress (which I am obsessed with), so I actually used a large white matte board (the kind you put behind pictures in frames), which you can find at most arts & crafts stores. Lastly, you’ll need stamp pads. Any color, and you can find those at craft stores as well.

I was actually wanting to use different colored ink, but depending on your stamp and the thickness of the lines in it, not all ink pads will work because of their sponginess. They get into the crevices and don’t stamp as clearly. I ended up using my black pad because it was the least spongy, so I thought I’d spruce it up with some gold flecks. Lastly, I tried using a guillotine cutter but the one I had wasn’t strong enough for this thickness of cardstock, so regular scissors worked great.

You may already be thinking…that’s a lot of work. If that’s the case, this is probably not the project for you. I guess I should have made a disclaimer, I don’t just do business cards this way for their cost effectiveness, but because I actually enjoy the process. And it honestly didn’t take me more than a couple afternoons.

Total cost of project:

$50 stamp

$15 32″by 40″ matte board (huge)

$3 ink pad

= $68 total for an average of $0.34/card at 200 cards

To give you a comparison, I once got a quote from a professional letterpress company for $470.00 for 100 cards. Yes, you can actually pay that much. I’m sure they were totally worth it and beautiful, but I just couldn’t personally justify spending that much. And let me remind you…now that I have the stamp, I can remake hundreds of cards for the $15 it costs to get the matte board, or any other surface I choose to stamp on!