I was trying to design a custom card for a client, and I ended up designing a card that matches my own brand and logo. I am going to make up a bunch of these and use them for people who place orders with me this month! Sometimes you just can’t plan the creative process. It just happens. I have new ideas in mind for my custom cards for my client, though! Yayyy, a double win!
I will be honest and straight up. I try to be VERY mindful about not using too many products on a card so that the card can be affordable for you guys to make. I didn’t do so well this time. WARNING: Duplicating this exact card is not for the faint of wallet. I will say that I acquired these products over time, and they are forever products to have in my craft library. And since I get a fabulous discount with Stampin’ Up!, it makes the products even more affordable. And, this idea can very easily be modified to do with products one has on hand! Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way, here we go…..
Here is what I ended up choosing to do, from design through execution, and why:
- I knew coming into today that I wanted to use the Rainbow paper, and the alphabet set. I knew I wanted the clean, crisp look of sparkly rainbow letters on stark white. My client has a rainbow color scheme in his logo, and he makes very crisp designs. Hence why I had these ideas in mind.
- I also thought I wanted balloons. More on that later.
- I knew that I wanted the letters elevated and with dimension. I LOVE the look of dimension. (Randomly inserted note to inform you that mailing cards with a lot of dimension takes an extra postage stamp in the U.S.)
And I knew that I wanted to make a THANK YOU card. (I knew this because my client wants custom thank you cards to send to his clients.)
After a LOT of playing around, I found that this formula works:
- Cut a Thick Whisper White Cardstock base at 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ and score at 4 1/4″.
- Cut a piece of 11″ Coastal Cabana ribbon from the Playing with Patterns pack, and wrap it around the card front approximately 1/3 of the way down from the top. Use scotch tape or mini-glue dots to adhere the ribbon ends so that they will be hidden under the decorative layer.
- Die-Cut a Whisper White layer, using the Sweet Sentiments Die-Cut (the one that is ~2 1/2″ x ~3 1/2″)
- Tape the letters T-H-A-N-K to the areas you want on the Rainbow paper, and adhere the paper to our new Foam Adhesive Sheet. Then run this through our new Stampin’ Cut & Emboss machine as just a regular sandwich (using plates 1,2,3, die-cut, paper, and foam adhesive, and another 3 plate)
- Tape the word you to a scrap of Basic Black cardstock, and adhere the paper to our new Foam Adhesive Sheet. Then run through our new Stampin’ Cut & Emboss machine using the same sandwich as you did for the Rainbow paper alphabet die-cuts.
- Tie the Coastal Cabana ribbon from the Playing with Pattern pack into a bow, and adhere it with a glue dot in the lower right corner.
- Here are a few design tips I learned:
- I was trying really hard to get the word T-H-A-N-K spread out evenly across the layer. Even with all my very careful measuring, it ended up adjusted to the left and not covering the whole layer. I used the grid paper and 0-Ruler to help me with placement.
- Since the word T-H-A-N-K was adjusted left, the design now needed some balance. So I put the you far to the right so that it was adjusted right basically. I also used black because that brought some heaviness and balance. (Don’t be afraid to use black!)
- I thought it still needed some visual balance, so I added the bow to the bottom right.
- I placed the sentiment layer in the center of the card horizontally. I placed the word T-H-A-N-K so that it was centered along the ribbon vertically. This way, even if the letters were not placed perfectly perfectly perfect on the white layer (and they weren’t), the brain would adjust the letters in the mind’s eye to perceive the word as appearing straighter. True!
- I placed the sentiment layer on dimensionals, and I made sure that I did not put the dimensionals on the ribbon. That would just make everything bumpy and weird. I adhered it to the card, an DONE!
- As for the balloon idea – I thought it would be cool to punch a balloon (using the balloon punch) and then die-cut a letter from the middle of the balloon. There ended up being two main problems with this idea. First, the balloons ended up being too wide to fit across the length of a card to spell out a word. And second, I put the balloon on the Dimensional Adhesive and die-cut the letter just fine. What I failed to realize is that the foam surrounding the balloon was visible because I had punched the balloon. Suffice it to say, I went with no balloons!!
- Click here to watch me make this card via Facebook video on Serenity LIVE
- Click here to head straight to a wish-list shopping cart with all the products used today
- Click here if you want to purchase this hand-made card, completely assembled and ready for you to mail to someone you are grateful for!
- Click here to join my team and get the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss NOW, at an incredible discount
p.s. Here is the card I designed for my client!
