How much a handmade card costs — and why

The most common question a papercraft maker hears is not "how do you make it?" but "why does it cost that much?". It is a fair question and deserves a fair answer — with numbers. In my shop, cards cost from €13 to €65, keepsake albums from €82. Let us take those numbers apart.

Time: 3–5 hours per card

A richly decorated card at €21 is realistically three to five hours of work. Choosing the papers and laying the composition out "dry" — before any glue — can take an hour. Then: cutting layers, die-cutting ornaments, hot foiling, shaping flowers (more on those below), mounting on risers, the sentiment plaque, the envelope. At a cleaner's hourly rate — not a designer's, a cleaner's — the labour alone would be €20–35. Roughly half of the card's price is time.

Flowers: a dozen or more, each made separately

The most labour-hungry element is the flowers. I do not buy them ready-made — I shape them from paper and foamiran: cutting petals, shading them with ink, heating, curling, assembling, adding stamens. One flower is 5–10 minutes; a card takes a dozen or more. They are what gives the composition a depth no print can match — and they are most of the difference between a classic card at €13 and a richly decorated one at €21.

Materials: not from a discount bin

The papers I use are 240–300 gsm, from collections designed by illustrators — a sheet costs €1–2 and a card takes several. Add chipboard, foil, acid-free glue (the cheap kind yellows through the paper within two years), half-pearls, lace, ribbon, a rigid envelope and a padded shipping box. Materials alone come to €4–6 before I even sit down.

What you cannot see

The price also carries everything outside the frame: design work (part of every composition ends up in the bin), product photography, descriptions, order handling, packing — and for custom designs, correspondence and a sketch before the work starts. Plus the most important thing: five years of practice that make a composition look light instead of overloaded. That is not for sale in any craft shop.

Why not cheaper?

I could cut the price by simplifying: wholesale flowers, print instead of foil, one layer instead of five. But then I would be selling exactly what sits in every supermarket for €3 — and you would not be reading this if that were what you wanted. Instead of lowering quality, I keep three price tiers: classic (€13), richly decorated (€21) and ceremonial with personalisation and a gift box included (€28). The differences are visible in the photos — which I think is a fair deal.

And what do you get "extra"?

Things a store card does not have: name and date personalisation (included on ceremonial cards), a handwritten dedication, shipping straight to the recipient with a note — no prices in the parcel — and the certainty that nobody else will ever receive the same card. Ever. That last part costs the most and costs nothing.