Simple friendships deserves a Thank you!

Hi all! Happy Wednesday- tonight I have two fun activities planned - the annual spaghetti dinner at the junior high and then the 6th grade band concert! Fine dining with premier musical performances to follow- it doesn't get much better than that now does it?

Today's lovely card just happened. Seriously! I sat down with a sketch to follow, a color theme and another challenge that asked for a gift card holder. Then I pulled out the colors and the stamp set Simple Friendship and went to work. When I was finished I loved the card but it certainly had Nothing at all to do with the sketch! The sketch was from CPS and will have to wait until tomorrow- it's a good one and I can't wait to create something with it. Just not today apparently!
The color challenge comes from Color Q and Arielle requested the following: Melon Mambo, Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal and Green Galore with a neutral. I sure had fun with those colors! How bright and lively can you get? The butterfly was inked with regal rose and markered on the body with melon mambo before stamping and then cutting out. Two of the flowers were also colored with the melon mambo marker before getting the same treatment. The third flower was stamped directly onto the vanilla base layer. I adhered the remaining flowers and butterfly with dimensionals.
The Vanilla square base was created with the scallop trim corner punch and scallop trim border punch. (Remember to visit Gretchen for a great tutorial on how to achieve this look.)

For the inside I started with a green galore card stock piece measuring 3 3/4" x 11 3/4". I folded it in half to get the center and then scored two lines- 2" from the center line, one to the right and one to the left. When folded you end up with a "mountain" fold like this: __/\__. Then I pinched the mountain together and used sticky strip to keep it nice and snug- just along the bottom and sides though- leave the top free of adhesive of any sort. I chose to use the new scallop trim border punch for the next step : which was to punch along the top seam to create an opening for the gift card. The 3 3/4" card stock size works great as it centers on the punch very well. I did need to use a hand held punch to "nip" off a tiny bit of each side to make it just a smidge bigger so my gift card would slide in and out easily without falling out randomly. This is one of those things that you need to play around a bit with depending on which punch you decide to use for your opening.

I hit the edges of the galore card stock with the same punch to keep the design flowing. I had stamped on the entire inside galore layer with the outline flower stamp but when it was all put together it was too busy. So I cut up a piece of apricot to fit on the "mountain sides" used the scallop trim punch again and snailed it on.

I decorated the inside of the card simply- a panel of
very vanilla for a writing area and a sweet sentiment to top it all off. This is a great way to present a gift card, whether it is one you bought at a store or one you made at home. My kids love getting "coupons" for dates with Mom or Dad as a way of thanking them for jobs well done.

Lastly, three tips: 1)the melon mambo card stock was cut to 4 X 8 1/8. I scored it in the middle and then also a smidge (aprox. 1/16th of an inch) to either side of that line so that the card would fold nicely once I fit the gift card segment inside. Otherwise the paper would not bend properly and you can end up with a crooked card. 2) I adhered the green galore cs to the melon mambo cs with sticky strip and did so while the card was opened flat. 3) Use a bone folder! You really need to make sure your folds are clean and crisp. This, combined with the extra scoring makes your card fold up like a pro's!

Well, I have a short week- my weekend starts early Friday morning when my daughter and I leave for Chicago for a Mother/Daughter weekend! We are so looking forward to it!

Keep On Inking!
Katt

Card has been sold

Supplies:

Papers: 12 x 12 Green Galore (107110), Melon Mambo (115320), Apricot Appeal (105124), Regal Rose (105130) and Very Vanilla (101650)
Stamps: Simple Friendship (113397)
Ink: Regal Rose (105211) and Green Galore (102122)
Markers: Melon Mambo- set of 6 In Colors (116329)
Punches: *Scallop Trim corner (118870) and **Scallop Trim Border (118402)
Tools: Bone Folder (102300)
Accessories: Vanilla Taffeta (109071), Sticky Strip (104294) and Dimensionals (104430)

*items to be found in the Occasions Mini-available January through April
**items to be found in the Sale-a-bration catalog- available January through March

If you need any of the above items click here to be taken directly to our Stampin' Up! website where you can order online 24/7!