Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a fairly simple card. Whenever I make Christening cards, I tend to turn to either my Lili of the Valley images or my Mo Manning ones. This Christening card is kind of special – it’s for a 3 year old. Mo Manning to the rescue. She has lots of toddler images, but I really love this Stock’s Up image. A little boy in his bathrobe with a newspaper in his hands, glasses that are too big and a mug sitting next to him. It’s such a good one.
I colored the image with My Copics and decided to fussy cut around it this time. I tend to turn my colored pieces into panels for my card and work from there, but I wanted to do something a little different today.
I left a white border around the image to make it easier on myself. You tend to lose some of the details in the hair if you cut up close to the line, and I wanted to keep the hair intact. I also added Glossy Accents to his glasses for shine and a touch of dimension.
I wanted to include his name on the card, but had printed my image fairly large. My solution was to make a landscape A7 card (7×5″). I rarely make landscape cards (trickier to photograph) and the same goes for A7, but it’s fun to shake things up. I also shook things up by adding cardstock strips going across the card. I tried with cool colors first, but the image got lost, so I went through my solid colors of cardstock again and made a version with warm tones. From top to bottom they are:
- Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink)
- Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink)
- Harvest Gold (Papertrey Ink)
- Buttercup (Concord & 9th)
- Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink)
- Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)
- Terracotta Tile (Papertrey Ink)
- Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
As you can see, I really love my Papertrey Ink cardstock. They have awesome colors.
I used the Impact Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things to spell the name. I die cut four of each letter and stacked them for a dimensional look, gluing them right onto the stripped background, before adding the sentiment and date in white on black.
I mounted the image on foam tape and added a few enamel dots from Altenew (teal dots from the Cool Summer Night pack) and Papirdesign to finish the card.
Simple color palette.
I used flowers from different companies (I honestly don’t know where these are from, I’ve had them for 10+ years, but I’m thinking most of these are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The ruffled roses are really old ones from Kort & Godt, and I think the teal ones might be from I am roses, though I’m not entirely sure), removed the yellow centers from the teal ones and replaced them with white pearls from Papirdesign.
Both insides share the same layout, and so does the back. I printed a sentiment to go on the back, as well as the date, and a few more flowers. These cards that I make with decorations on all four sides are thick, flowers add a ton of dimension. I used old patterned paper from Maja Design for this card. The Vintage Spring Basics collection and the Vintage Summer Basics collection are both collections that Maja Design released over 10 years ago. Back then, I used plenty of patterned paper, and especially Maja Design. Their paper is such good quality, and I love their use of pattern and color. My style has changed considerably, and I rarely use large pieces of patterned paper anymore, but I still have a lot, and Maja Design is still a favorite.
Simple color palette that makes the teal pop!
The card was made on order for a superintendent turning 60. I was told he likes wine, good food, sunny, warm weather and enjoying life and was given free reign to do as I pleased. 
I rarely use patterned papers on my cards anymore, and certainly not pieces this big, but I love the XXL Square Frames Frilly #10 die set from GoKreate, the dies in the set are perfect for creating shaped cards. I use two 12×12″ sheets of patterned paper to make one of these cards, and this time I used the Drivers License patterned paper from the Denim & Friends collection as well as the Tough but sweet sheet from the Denim & Girls collection, both from Maja Design. I can cut two of the larger shapes and two of the smaller shapes from one sheet, so the insides of the card are reverse.
I colored the image in colors that went with the patterned paper, adding a bit of red to catch the eye and writing the words on his t shirt with a black Copic friendly pen. I thought the pun would tick the “loves wine” box.
I used foam tape to add the smaller shape to the larger one, and also to add the die cut circle to the smaller shape. I stamped postmarks from various cities in the world using Memento Rich Cocoa ink to add a little bit of interest to the circle and the panel behind it. I figure if the guy loves warm, sunny weather, he probably also loves to travel, there’s not a whole lot of warm days in Oslo over the course of a year.
I added some metal embellishments from Tim Holtz in a bit of a cluster near the bottom left “corner”, as well as his age, die cut and put on a 1″ circle with an epoxy sticker on top for a bit of added dimension.
I hid a die cut tag behind my image. I used to do this all the time, and it’s a fun way to add a sentiment without having to find space for it on the front of the card. The sentiment is from the Til mannen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. The dies I used for the tag and reinforcer are old ones from Magnolia. I tied a bow from twill onto the tag, and some cutlery charms to the twill bow using natural twine from May Arts. I thought the cutlery was perfect for a food lover, I have so many treasures in my stash that I forget about until I go looking for something to use.
The inside of the card are pretty simple. The same patterned paper as the front, only with the reverse size. I used more of the postmark stamps from Marianne Design, as well as a sentiment from the Gratulerer stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. There’s plenty of space for a personal message on the second circle, which only has the postmark stamps on the edges.
The back of the card is also simple. Another sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS, this time it’s the B03 stamp set. I love their stamp sets and use them more than any other of my Norwegian sentiment stamps. They’re hard to get your hands on because the company is no longer in business, but they’re the best sentiments out there.
Simple color palette.
I colored up this image nearly a year ago, so it was about time I put it to good use on a card. Using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things, I turned it into a panel with the faux stitch edge that I love to use on my cards. There’s something about faux stitching dies that make the cards look more finished. It’s a nice, subtle detail. I adhered the panel to a top fold card base I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
From the same color cardstock, I die cut the sentiment using the Dagen er din die from Papirdesign. I stacked four die cuts for a dimensional look and added a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish off the card.
Blues and greens for the win for this one. I’ve always been a fan of analogous color combinations, they’re very harmonious.
I printed the dragon on a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored him with my Copics, before using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 die set from My Favorite Things. I covered my card base with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ piece of patterned paper from Kaisercraft (Charmed from the Key to my Heart collection) to match the green. I cut the panel with the dragon at funky angles at the top and left side to create a convex quadrilateral that I mounted on foam tape in the top left corner of the card.
Using a scrap of patterned paper from the Fremtidsdrømmer collection from Papirdesign, I die cut Gratulerer using the Gratulerer med dagen 3 die set, also from Papirdesign. I die cut an additional 3 layers of white cardstock to glue behind it, but decided that even that wasn’t enough dimension, so I cut tiny slivers of clear foam tape from Rabbit Hole Designs to add to the back of the letters. That did the trick, and it looks like the die cut is floating. I stamped a sub sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto another piece of the same patterned paper using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, cut it down to a strip, added a couple of white cardstock strips behind it and more of the clear foam tape to make it float, before finishing off the card with a few enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.
Fairly simple color palette, but I went through too many teal colors before I decided on the right one for the straws and the sprinkles.
Papirmølla 