New branding means new business cards so I ordered up a batch of luxe Moo cards and added a little DIY spin on them. I spray painted the edges gold and added a little gold metal heart to the back. I wanted them to hint at my crafty skills and attention to detail while still being clean and professional. I just finished gluing the hearts on all of them and I’m so happy with the results! I used a slightly different method for painting the edges and it worked so much better than my first go around. Thanks to the talented Jordan Smith who came up with the idea of using rubber bands while we were nomming away at sushi the other day.
DIY Gold Edge Business Cards
Supplies
Extras
Metallic gold hearts
Super glue
- Start with super thick business cards. This is integral! If they are too thin you won’t notice the edge painting. Divide the cards into neat stacks of about 50 cards. Place a couple rubber bands around them and then realign the edges so they are square as possible.
- Spray two , even coats on the edges that are not covered by the rubber bands. Allow them to dry. I’m impatient so I only waited about 10 minutes. If you’re more patient than me it’s probably better to wait around 20 minutes.
- Rotate the rubber bands 90 degrees and spray another 2 coats on the other 2 sides. Allow them to dry completely then bring your cards indoors and carefully separate them and place them on a table, not overlapping. I covered my desk with paper to protect the surface because the gold paint will rub off a tiny bit at first. Allow them to dry overnight to make sure the paint cures a bit and you’re done!
Angel Y.
I love the new design! Your husband did a great job developing. It seems like having developer husbands always works out. :P I can’t wait until my new branding is complete. I absolutely adore this DIY. It’s super cost-effective. What’s paper weight did you use for your business cards? Business cards for me are more than overdue!
Marlene @ Jade and Fern
Sarah, the new branding is beautiful! I love the simplicity, simple-chic design always makes me swoon. And the category pages are great! So cool that you can pin directly from there. Go husband! :)
Sarah
Thanks so much Angel! Developer husbands are the best, right?
The cards are 30 pt matte stock. I highly recommend them!
Carmen
Love the new site and biz cards!
Make It Friday 9.13.13 Jade and Fern
[…] Speaking of fancy, how cool are these gold-edge business cards by Sarah […]
Links I Love: 9.13.13 » Static-Romance.Org
[…] of lovely ladies, fellow Orlando designer and blogger, Sarah of Sarah Hearts, shared this easy DIY business card edge painting tutorial. While I am all for supporting my local printers, the temptation of a $5 edge painting alternative […]
Jeran
I love the new site. I need one of those coding husbands though. That could come in handy. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those new business cards.
Karina
What a wonderful idea! I wouldn’t think of spraying the gold myself, I would probably ask the printing house for a gold paper.
Links I Love: 9.13.13 | Studio404
[…] of lovely ladies, fellow Orlando designer and blogger, Sarah of Sarah Hearts, shared this easy DIY business card edge painting tutorial. While I am all for supporting my local printers, the temptation of a $5 edge painting alternative […]
Susan
I love the Moo biz cards. I’ve been wanting to get some of their luxe double thick cards. Spray painting the edges a metallic color is a stroke of brilliance.
Amber Z
Love this!!! So creative! May I ask what you used to make the little gold hearts?
Sarah
Amber ZThanks Amber! I purchased the small metal hearts from an Etsy shop.
sai
Hi, Sarah I’m just in the process of trying this out and I was wondering whether you had to do something to stop the paint form coming off afterwards? Or is there a particular spray paint that you used that doesn’t come off? :)
Sarah
saiI have only tried this with Valspar gold spray paint and have found that they do rub off a bit. A lot of people recommend Montana spray paints so I would give those a try. You could also try spraying the edges (when they are all stacked up) with a clear, acrylic varnish. You can find these at most art supply stores.
Ole
Great work! About DIY business card, I writed a post on my blog…:
http://theolefiles.blogspot.it/2014/02/biglietti-per-tutti-parte-1.html
Sophie
These are stunning!!! How did you do the gold hearts?
Sarah
SophieThanks Sophie! I bought these small metal hearts and used super glue to glue them to the back of each card.
Inkee Press | Gold DIY
[…] in place, repeat until you have you desired length! 5: Gold Edged Business Cards – tutorial here 6: Painted Gold Branches – tutorial […]
Ryan Duffy
Great post!
If you guys would like to check out my video tutorial on how I edge painted my business cards, check out my video here:
http://youtu.be/N6OTQ7bdfhg?list=UUtAFieB-koVftaBYPMc1TwA
Enjoy!
Luis
Sweet tut Sarah! If anyone is considering an alternative solution to the DIY approach Oubly prints edge painted business cards on 36 pt. thick eco-friendly paper. They have 9 colors to choose from. Check them out: http://www.oubly.com/premium-business-cards?
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Sarah
Hi, I love your cards and I wanted to do something similar with mine. I was just concerned about them sticking together after they were spray painted but while they were drying.. Did you have any problems with them sticking together or do you have any suggestions how I could prevent that? Thanks!
Sarah
SarahThey did stick some but I found that by separating them as soon as the were dry to the touch was helpful. Definitely don’t let them dry completely before unstacking and separating them. I covered the table with paper then placed them on top so they weren’t overlapping and let them dry completely.
Denise
Hello! Are the gold hearts stuck on? Or embossed? xx
Leonie
Thank you so much for this! I have been looking for a website that does them but it’s pricey. I was thinking of this but didn’t want to distroy a new batch of business cards. I love the look so much
Sarah
LeonieYou’re so welcome! I love the look of gold edge cards too :)
carolina
This is a great I idea, i tried this but the paint bled onto the business cards. Any idea why?
Sarah
carolinaHmm, I found this happens when the edges of the cards aren’t aligned perfectly square or when they aren’t held down tight enough. I hope this helps!
Anja
hey, just wondering, what kind of paper are you using? is it possible to do this on an art paper?
Sarah
AnjaHi! I had my cards printed on Oubly their extra-thick card stock.
Gerardo Villafaña
I need a cuotation for my presentation cards
Colin
Hey Sarah! Could you share what font you used for the business cards? :)
Sarah
ColinSure thing! I used Quicksand, a Google font.
Kelly Johnson
I love the way you did this. My favorite custom playing card company makes me decks that are both glossy and have gold gilt edges and the card stock is only like 330gsm. The cards look amazing. I attempted to gilt a deck of Game of Thrones playing cards with a Krylon 18k gold leafing pen and succeeded almost but that almost is not a yes. So I did some googling. I love this approach and I’m going to use it on the 500x glossy metallic gold text and silver image with a black background cards. I’ll buy the gloves, spray paint, and rubber bands tomorrow :) I’m certain this will work. I was thinking about how when I order gold gilt decks there is gold dust sprinkled on some cards so I’m going to do this but I still don’t know how they gilt the edges of decks when you order professionally. I may just email them for my own edification. I order from makeplayingcards.com but my mom is old school so she wanted 500 cards from …vistaprint T _ T I designed the cards myself and just uploaded my design and for her going with double metallics and sans serif font was a big step. She wanted glossy, not matte. So I looked at my custom deck site and yep they gold gilt glossy cards too so that’s just how I got here I love your project and how it turned out :)
Brian H. Phillips
Amazing points diy gold edge business cards. I am thankful for sharing the great information!!!
SM Sarim
Thanks for sharing such beautiful cards with us.