Versatile card sets

This spring the parent association at my school is holding a silent auction fundraiser. Last year I donated a set of handmade cards to the silent auction, and they sold quickly, so I decided to make a set again this year. Well, actually I decided to make two sets: one with a retro swirl design and one a more traditional floral.

I love the way these cards turned out. I used the Retro Swirls A2 die from Erin Lee Creative. There are five “sections” of the swirl so I used five colors of card stock to make a bright rainbow and heavyweight white card stock for the card bases. I ran the die through my die-cutting machine with each piece of colored card stock and separated the pieces for each card. To glue the pieces, I started with the middle, chunkiest section of the swirl and then worked outward.

For the sentiments, I used the On Occasion stamp set and coordinating dies from Taylored Expressions. I like how the style of the font works with swirl, and there are five great sentiments in the set — one for each card. I stamped and die cut each sentiment, and then I cut each sentiment die two more times out of plain white card stock. I glued the pieces for each sentiment together in a stack and adhered them in the lower right corner of the cards. I finished each card with a few sequins.

Since I really liked the way these cards turned out, I decided to make five more in a different color combination:

I chose these beachy colors for a more neutral or masculine option. The only other change from the first version is that I used dark brown ink for the sentiments instead of black.

I debated making each version into a separate card set, but for some reason I like my card sets to have an even number of cards. So I went with one set of ten cards.

For the second set of cards I wanted to do something floral, but not too elaborate. After trying a few things, I settled on this layout. I used the Full of Flowers background stamp from Taylored Expressions to stamp four A2 panels of white card stock using black ink. I cut each panel into thirds to make ten patterned strips (with a little left over). I glued each strip along the bottom of a top-folding heavy white card base. Then I added a 1/4" strip of black card stock along the top of the patterned piece on each card.

To make the colored flowers, I used the matching Full of Flowers - Singles stamps and dies from Taylored Expressions. I stamped the flowers and leaves several times and used the "filler" stamps (that come with the background stamp) to add the color. I die cut the elements and mixed and matched the pieces into ten groups.

Before adding the flowers I stamped a different sentiment on each card just above the black strip and toward the right side. (The sentiments are from the Sending Love Mail stamp set from Hero Arts.) Then I used glue and foam tape to add the flowers to create a little dimension. for the finishing touch I added three clear droplets around the flowers on each card.

I packaged each card set, with envelopes, in a small gift bag. I had planned to use clear card boxes that I have, but the stacks of cards were too thick. Unfortunately I didn't discover that until the night before I had to bring them to work; if I had realized it earlier, I would have made a cute holder for each set.

Thanks for stopping by!