There are two types of cards I love making more than any other: Christmas cards and birthday cards. I love making clean and simple cards, but also very layered ones with lots of patterned paper. Today’s card is one of those, made exclusively with papers from the Sofiero collection from Maja Design.

One of the things I love the most about Maja Design paper is the quality of the paper they use. It’s almost as thick as cardstock, something I haven’t really found in other patterned papers. Their patterns are gorgous, too, making card making a breeze. The thick quality also means I can use a wet paint brush (with clean water) and run along the edges, before using my fingers to curl them slightly back. This is so much easier to do when the paper is wet, and so much easier to do with these good quality papers. Thinner paper won’t hold up as well to all that water. I love the look you achieve by doing this.

I’m not an embellishment queen. I use a little bit on cards like this, but I rarely do a lot. This time, I used some pieces of chipboard from SnipArt and a few flowers to frame the image in the center of my card. I also used some lace to combat the rigid look you sometimes get when using just straight lines like square or rectangular panels.

I also added a couple of diecut doilies to further break up the linear look, and added stacked diecut numbers to the bottom left of the focal point of the card. As you can tell from this photo, this is a card with lots of dimension, it’s not very mail friendly.

I did a little bit of layering on the insides, as well. They are both the same, and those pink center panels provide plenty of room to write a personal message to the birthday girl.

On the back of the card I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Papertrey Ink Autumn Rose ink. The text is about butterflies, so I thought it fitting to add a few chipboard ones for a little bit of extra interest.

Even though my card isn’t very mail friendly, I needed something to put it in, so I made a box envelope to go with it and added the recipient’s name on the front of it. The card was hand delivered, so this works perfectly.