Welcome back to our "A Year of Card Making Techniques" follow up posts. As every month with our hop I try to give you a little more inside in how these cards were made.
First of let's talk about the stamp set I used for this technique. Our challenge was to use one set in multiple ways. This Close to My Heart set "Hello Lovely" was sitting in my stack of stamps and since I had to do a few wedding cards I thought this was the perfect pick. Whenever you start with a set, make it easy for yourself and think of backgrounds first. Most stamps make great backgrounds. Cut yourself a few pieces of white cardstock measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" which are the size of a regular card front. Stamp your background on them and later, depending on your layout and design, cut them down to the size needed for your card.
- I used one of the pre-cut cardstock piece and stamped the biggest stamp of the set along the right side. Make sure your stamp goes over the edges so it looks more random. In all my samples I used our grey ink "Whisper". To make this background look a little bit more festive I added clear glitter with a brush to the smaller grey roses.
- For the next piece I stamped the frame with "Mr&Mrs" on the cardstock randomly and again on to some post-it notes. Cut out the frame on the post-it note and cover the stamped images on the white cardstock covering them up completely. Now I used the big stamp again and stamped all over the white cardstock with the post-it notes covering my frames. I made sure I turned the stamp around multiple times and I went over the edges. With this big stamp I did had some white spaces in between so I used on of the hearts from the set and some colored ink and filled them in. Ones you remove the post-its the frames seem to sit on top of your flowers.OK, now that I had my backgrounds done I needed to think about the card design. Since I cut the pieces of white cardstock at the same size as a regular card front, I could either leave them as cut or I could mat them, die cut them... You can trim these piece down to the desired size.
For my first card seen at the beginning of this post I trimmed the stamped image down to about 4" x 5 1/2". I used a piece of grey cardstock measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" to cover my card front. 
The stamped image was centered with foam dots in the middle of the front leaving a small strip of grey on either side. I die-cut the wedding couple in a darker grey and placed white glitter paper behind the couple. The couple was raised with foam dots and placed onto the left side of the stamped image. I decided to go with a sentiment on a small piece of grey cardstock. I used watermark ink and platinum embossing powder to give it more elegance. For the inside I cut a piece of grey cardstock at 3 3/4" x 5" and adhered a piece of white cardstock 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" to it. I stamped the same flower image one more time on white cardstock and used the matching die-cut to cut it out. I stamped my phrase for the inside to the top so the die-cut would fit in the lower right corner.
Simple, but elegant in white, grey and a little glitter. I hope you liked this one :-)
For the second card I cut my card base at 4 1/4" x 11" folded in half. I cut another piece of 4 1/4" x 5" white cardstock which was scored at 1/2", 1", 2 1/4", 3 1/2". Accordion fold the piece and glue the 1 1/2" end to the bottom inside of the card front. The front of the card is covered in a piece of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" grey cardstock and my stamped background was cut down to 4" x 5 1/4" and glued in the center of the grey cardstock.
The steps in front of the card are covered with pieces of grey cardstock matching the steps (Just cover the fronts, not the back of the steps). I die-cut the wedding couple from sorbet cardstock, the same color that was used to stamp the hearts. I added white glitter paper behind the couple and fuzzy cut around it leaving a small border around the couple. I glued the couple to the bigger step of the front so the dress is right about where the smaller step. Two matching flowers from the set as well as a little phrase and some pearls finishing off this card.
Lucky me, without having my finished card planed in my head (LOL sometimes you get lucky) the first frame of the "Mr&Mrs" sits right above their heads.
I piece of white ribbon wrapped around the top and a bow finishing off this card. If you card doesn't want to stay open, score carefully a line about 1/2" off the top of the back of the card and fold it outside.
Well, I hope you like this little excursion into how these cards came along. Tune back in next Friday for part 2 of this series to see card two more card ideas.
But I also would love to see you back here regular to see more cards, ideas, inspirations and news about Close to My Heart and other products.
If you have questions or like to join one of my classes, contact me I would love to hear from you.
Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think or if there is anything else you like to see here....Thanks for hopping....stay tuned
