Fellowship of the Things

Find royalty free or public domain clip art online that you feel would make good card art.

Transfer the art into a program such as paint or word and resize to fit within your card size.

Note: You can layout multiple templates on a single sheet to be printed and use for making multiple cards.

Suggested art:

• Generic Heraldry

• Populace badges (avoid branch arms as those are restricted as to who can use them)

• Period manuscripts

• Designs on ceramics, woodworking, and other period art

• Draw your own original designs!

Try to avoid copyrighted works, such as any modern art.
Just because you found it on google doesn't mean it is free for the taking.

We used standard 8.5 x 11" cardstock (white) for our cards.

Using a paper cutter with a guide, we cut them each in half to 8.5 x 5.5".
Then folded each piece to 4.25 x 5.5" for our finished card size.

Use your finger nail or a folding guide to give a nice clean crease to the spine.

Note: If you do not have a paper cutter, you can carefully mark the half point with a ruler and cut with scissors. Be careful to keep your lines as straight as possible so your cards are nice and square.

Using the light table, align your paper over the template and carefully trace the lines lightly with a pencil.

Do not press heavily, you want to leave really light lines. If your lines are too heavy, they will show through the gouache paint and the paint will prevent erasing the pencil afterwards.

Note: If you do not have a light table, you can use a window on a sunny day for the same effect.

Carefully paint your design using the gouache paint or paint type of your choosing.

You might want to let it dry between colours to prevent bleeding between the colours.

Using your lining pen, carefully outline all the details to make your card design pop.

You can also use shading with your paints, or black paint to create an outlining effect.

Note: Your design may not require outlining. This step is at your artistic discretion.

Don't forget to sign the art, or include "Painted by: -- your name --" on the back!

You can buy premade blank cards and envelopes, but we found it much more cost effective to cut our own cards. Blank envelopes are nice to include, but not required if you have trouble sourcing affordable supplies.