Friday, January 3, 2020

Bookmarks and rainbow cards

I have a friend who teaches yoga, and for the last several years I've created little gifts for her to give her students over the holidays. This past Christmas we decided to make bookmarks with space on the back for people to record the books they read during the year.

Supplies:
Stamps: Struggle Is Part of It (Unity Stamp Company), Book Club (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Brights Collection card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), Poppy Parade Blends markers (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: ZIG Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen (Kuretake), scalloped circle punch (Stampin' Up!), silver elastic cord (Stampin' Up!), Mono Multi liquid glue (Tombo)

I played around with many different designs, but because I would be mass producing the bookmarks and time was limited, I decided to go with this clean and simple layout. I trimmed all the white layers and then stamped the stack of books and the sentiment using black ink. (I used a stamp positioner so it was easy to get the images stamped correctly every time.) I colored the little heart with a red marker and added clear glitter over the pages of the stamped books. It's a nice subtle sparkle; I wish you could see it in this picture.

To add a pop of color, I mounted the bookmarks on a rainbow of card stock. I used all the colors from the Stampin' Up! Brights Collection and added in the retired Lemon Lime Twist. (I made four of each color for a total of 44 bookmarks.)

I created the layer for the back of the bookmarks on the computer. I set up a table in a Word document and sized the table cells to fit the back of the bookmark (I think I was able to get four per page). In each table cell, I added the heading at the top and blank lines all the way down. Once that was set up, I printed the pages, cut apart the cells and glued them to the back of each bookmark.

I also added a coupon for a free yoga class to each bookmark. I typed and printed the text, cut it out with a scalloped circle punch, and tied it on a length of silver elastic cord. Then I slipped the elastic around the bookmarks.



I think one of my favorite things about these bookmarks was seeing them all stacked together in this gorgeous rainbow. Isn't it pretty? That rainbow inspired me, and since I had lots of uniform card stock strips left over from cutting the bookmark bases, I created a few rainbow cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: Dance, Sing, Love (Penny Black), Simple Strips Background (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Whisper White, thick Whisper White, Basic Black, vellum, Lemon Lime Twist, Brights Collection card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Smile die (Gina K Designs), Simple Strips die (Taylored Expressions), black enamel dots (Eyelet Outlet), foam tape (3M)

Oh, I love these cards! They're so simple, but very striking. I adhered skinny strips of the colored card stock at a diagonal on white card bases and then trimmed off whatever went past the edges. (For one of the cards, I glued the strips on white card stock and then adhered that to a white card base. For the other, I adhered the strips directly to the white card base.) I finished the first card by adding a layer of vellum card stock stamped with a quote. For the second card I added a die-cut word and a stamped sentiment strip. I added a few black enamel dots to each card. (The dot on the letter I in smile is an enamel dot. I always seem to lose track of those little pieces, and enamel dots are a great solution.)

Supplies:
Paper: Whisper White, thick Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Brights Collection card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Signo white gel pen (Uni-ball)
Accessories: Hello die (Gina K Designs), Bold Butterfly dies (Stampin' Up!), rhinestones (Stampin' Up!)

I really wanted to make a card with all the colors together, so I went with this long layout, sometimes called a slimline card. It's about 4" wide and 9" tall and fits in a business-sized envelope.

For this card I glued the card stock strips onto a piece of white card stock which I adhered to a  white card base. Using white instead of black as the accent color, I doodled a border around the edges with a gel pen and then added two die-cut butterflies and a die-cut hello. I placed two rhinestones along the body of each butterfly and then scattered a few more rhinestones around the card.

I wanted to make a second card this size, but after I glued all the strips down to a white layer, I discovered that one of them must have been cut just slightly crooked. The top half of the strips was straight, and the bottom half was definitely not! So I cut that panel in half, trimmed the wonky half so the strips were straight and created two cards instead.

Supplies:  
Paper: Whisper White, thick Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Brights Collection card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Hugs Sugar Script die (Birch Press Design), Birthday Pop-Up dies (Stampin' Up!), ZIG Wink of Sella cclear glitter brush pen (Kuretake), white enamel dots (Eyelet Outlet), foam tape (3M)

I finished these cards in basically the same way as the others: die cuts and enamel dots. I like how the colors of each card combined with the font of the sentiments gives one card a more feminine feel, and one looks a little more masculine.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a day filled with rainbows!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liking the cheery rainbow theme today (although...yay...the sun is shining today, what a treat!) I'm certain your friends clients appreciated the bookmark/coupon combo. A pretty presentation. Sometimes bright colors can seem a bit too much - I like ideas for how to use them - using black and white with them really works well.
Judy

Andrea said...

Thanks, Judy! I saw the sun today, too, and it was wonderful!