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I’m playing with a fun fold my mentor shared with me called a Trellis Split Front card and the Wisteria Wishes bundle from the 2022 annual catalog. Here’s a video on how to make the trellis card base, but I’m going to walk you through what I did, too: https://youtube.com/shorts/ic6lOjerICQ?feature=share . As always I started by gathering my materials, Crumb Cake card stock, Fancy Flora DSP, Fine Shimmer paper and more.
In this image, I’ve already cut the Crumb Cake paper lengthwise to 4-1/4″ by 11″ and scored it at 5-1/2″. I also cut off the strips to make the trellis. You need seven 1/2″-4-1/4″ strips cut from the front of the card base.
Building the Trellis
For the trellis construction, I used a roll of Post-it note tape. You can buy this at a office supply store or your favorite GIGANTIC retailer that will drop it at your door. It’s very low tack and won’t rip your paper when you remove it. The strip down the center is tacky side up. The strips at the bottom and upper corner are to hold everything in place.
I started by adding the bottom strip first so I could line it up with the bottom of the card back and the edges. Then I just filled in the next four strips. so that I had a “ladder” with five rungs. But remember, I cut seven strips of paper. This is where the trellis magic happens.
With a bit of liquid glue, dotted in a straight line, you can see how to add the sixth and seventh strips. These will anchor your ladder rungs and provide stability to the card. The sides will be a little long, but you can trim them off after the glue sets.
Your trellis card base is ready to decorate.
Decorating the Wisteria Wishes Trellis Card
The card design consisted mainly of die cuts with a little pit of stamping. I stamped the cluster of wisteria blossoms on the designer paper. I die cut those out along with a large wisteria blossom in Gorgeous Grape with the overlay in the designer paper. The leaf sprays are from a sheet of Soft Succulent shimmer paper. Shimmer paper is great stuff. You get the sparkle of glitter without it getting all over everything, and it cuts beautifully. All the leaf detail made it into my pieces on the first try.
For the top of the card, I used a piece of the designer paper cut to 1-3/4″ x 4″. The big wisteria blossom is lifted up on two strategically placed Dimensionals. I glued down everything else making sure to keep the glue to the trellis parts so it didn’t stick to my inside panel.
For the final touch, I stamped my sentiment on a remaining scrap of designer paper and layered it with Gorgeous Grape using the Double Oval punch. Using the Post-it tape to construct this card made it so much simpler than I expected. I love the final product.
If you’d like to make this card, all of the other products I used are available from Stampin’ Up!. You can shop with me using the code in the right panel. Until next time, Ink up!
Just a couple more weeks of Sale-a-bration, so I had to show you the Beautifully Happy set. It’s a two-step set with images and sentiments and one of your free options with a $100 purchase. When working with a two-step stamp collection, I try to remember to get out my Stamparatus. This stamp positioning tool makes life so easy.
For this card, I found inspiration from another demonstrator’s post. You can always find inspiration for creating with this set and LOTS of others on my Pinterest boards: https://www.pinterest.com/dayinker/
Let’s start stamping.
A Beautifully Happy Birthday Card – The Planning and Cutting
To begin, I selected the colors I wanted to work with for this card. I knew I wanted to use some of the 6×6″ Fancy Flora designer paper from the mini catalog. I love that the backing is printed with not only the name of the paper, but the Stampin’ Up! colors that coordinate. Once I picked a pattern I liked, it was simple to select some pretty colors. I went with Orchid Oasis, an In-Color for 2022-24, and Soft Succulent and Fresh Freesia, 2021-2023 In-Colors.
Next, I did some cutting. I cut the sheet of Orchid Oasis cardstock in half to make my card base. I trimmed the designer paper to 4″x5-1/4″ and cut a piece of White for the inside of the card to the same dimensions. The inside is stamped with a the happy birthday sentiment and the single flower outline in Orchid Oasis. I also used two “scrap” strips of the designer paper, 1/2″x4″ at the top and bottom of the inside white piece. Super fancy, I know. I hate wasting that gorgeous paper and I love a card that is decorated from the envelope to the interior.
A Beautifully Happy Birthday Card – The Stamping and Assembly
Then it was time for stamping with the large flower spray in the Beautifully Happy set. For this, I remembered to use my Stamparatus. I stamped the flower spray in Orchid Oasis ink. For the leaves and the flower shading, I used Soft Succulent and Fresh Freesia. Because the stamp positioner keeps everything perfectly aligned, I was able to stamp the shading a couple of times to get the ink as dark as I wanted.
I cut this stamped piece down to 2-1/2″ x 4-1/4″. The Orchid Oasis layer under it is just 1/8″ bigger for each dimension. The bee from the set helped to balance the image. It’s stamped in Tuxedo Black and colored in with the light So Saffron Stampin’ Blends. After tying a length of matching Metallic Woven ribbon at the bottom third, I adhered the piece to the card with Dimensionals.
For my final touches, I added a sentiment, also layered on Orchid Oasis and a few Matte Decorative Dots. And of course, a flower stamped on the envelope.
If you’d like to order any of the products mentioned here, you can shop with me using the code on the right, or contact me with questions. Until next time: Ink up!
How do you decide what to create with new products, like the Desert Details bundle once you’ve unboxed your order? How do you commit to cutting the paper? I’m an advocate of the Stampin’ Up! kits and Paper Pumpkin because they clear that hurdle for you by providing some preplanned projects. But I also enjoy seeing where the products take me, finding out what I can create from scratch. I’m going to walk you through my method in a gallery style. I started with an intention to create a masculine birthday card. I’m almost completely out and I have some birthdays coming up.
Delicate Desert DSP
First, I opened the Delicate Desert paper pack and flipped every other page so I could see all the patterns along with the Desert Details stamp set. I loved the colors. Gray Granite called to me, as well as the rustic Cajun Craze pattern. From the stamp set, I decided to use the “Let the fun begin” as one of my sentiments. But I would need a Happy Birthday sentiment from another stamp set. I could worry about that later.
Desert Details Dies
Next, I considered what die cuts I might want to use from the Desert Details dies. I decided pretty quickly that I didn’t want flowers for this project. I liked the details on the two panel dies and the aloe plant shape would be a nice contrast to all those hard edges. I couldn’t ignore the cool geometric banner piece which I decided would be perfect for a sentiment in a small font. I wanted to use the long edge die too. Perhaps on the inside.
Narrowing the choices
Once I had an idea of the elements, I started to make some selections and draft a layout. Returning to the DSP, I decided which patterns I would use for each layer. I pulled a sheet of each color of cardstock I thought I might use: Cajun Craze, Gray Granite, and Soft Succulent. I really liked the die that would add cut-outs with a diamond pattern, but it didn’t work for this card as I already had a lot going on.
Die-cutting the Desert Details
Next, it was time to cut the paper. I cut a 4″ strip from the Cajun Craze pattern paper and a 3″ strip from the Gray Granite pattern for my banner pieces. I cut the cardstock in half and then the Gray Granite and Soft Succulent halves in quarters. This saves paper by leaving me usable pieces for card bases or layering. I cut small strips off one of the quarters of the Gray Granite and the Soft Succulent paper so I didn’t run the entire quarter sheet through my cutting/embossing machine. That can leave marks from the plates on the scrap making it unusable.
Stamping Time
Now that I had all the paper I needed to create my card, it was time to stamp. You may notice I have a quarter sheet of white card stock cut 4″x 5-1/4″. That piece is going inside my card. I also have a strip of white paper that I planned to use for my tiny sentiment. More on that soon.
Heat Embossing to the Rescue
I found a sentiment that would work with a little fussy cutting in the Beautifully Happy set currently available through Sale-a-bration. Heat embossing with a metallic powder, like Copper, let me add some bling to my masculine card without making it too fussy. I was also able to cut just the “happy birthday” from the sentiment that read “for a very happy birthday.” I love masking stamps or cutting the part I need in order to really customize my cards. You’ll also notice in the upper right of this picture, that when I did my stamping, I added a little detail to the envelope. A decorated envelope announces to the recipient there’s something special inside.
The Inside Desert Details
Here is how the inside of the card looks. In retrospect, I probably would make two changes to this. I would stamp the sentiment in Cajun Craze and the detail stripe in Soft Succulent. Second, I would have flipped my die cut so that the “teeth” hung over the edge of the base and the Cajun Craze card could peep between them. Next time, I’ll try that and let you know.
The Final Desert Details Masculine Birthday Card
Here is the final card. Instead of the Gold Faceted sequins that come with the Delicate Desert Suite, I used the Brushed Metallic dots from the annual catalog. The Gray Granite banner is popped up on Dimensionals and so is the leafy plant. That was a labor of love because I had to cut the mini-dimensionals into thirds to make it work. Talk about fussy!
Overall, I’m very happy with how this card came out. I told you about the minor changes I would make to the inside, but I think the front of the card is exactly what I wanted—interesting without being too fussy.
Let me know if you liked this post and would like more behind the scenes with the designer posts. If you’d like to purchase any of these products, there is a shop with me code on the right. Until next time: Ink up!
