Penn Themed Graduation Thank You Cards

My triplets just graduated from college, and they needed to send a few thank you notes. Because many of the gifters would be receiving three cards, I wanted to have three different card designs. And because Kelly, Kevin, and Keith all graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, I created all the cards with a U Penn theme.

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The first one was a design modified from a card I made a while back. I cut the letters with my Silhouette and backed the negative with a piece of digital red and blue paper by EditableMotifs. What was cool about this file is that it is editable, so I was able to darken the red, make the stripes narrower, and remove the white stripes that were in the original design. The greeting was stamped from the “Assorted Greetings” set from Gina K Designs with GKD Blue Denim ink. I created the strip with the Stampin’ Up “Word Window Punch” (retired). Recollections Blue card stock was used for the mat.

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The next card was made with a photo I took of College Hall. I printed it to size and added it to a white card base. The card was easy. Getting a good photo – not so much! I usually go early on a Sunday morning to try to get campus photos because there are very few people out and about at that time. The problem is that the early morning sun creates wicked shadows everywhere! I loved the fall foliage on this one even though I struggled to get the lighting right. (I recently went on a cloudy morning which helped, but the leaves were all green on that one, and I liked the more colorful version better.)

I played around with an eclipse design but ultimately went with the plain photo since I needed to make a bunch of these cards. Plus, any leftovers can now be used as general note cards and not just as thank you notes.

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The final design was a Red and Blue CAS card using the Stampendous “H122 – Graduation” stamp and a greeting from the “Borders Abound” set (retired?) from Stampin’ Up. Both were stamped with In the Navy ink (GKD). The panel was cut with an unmarked stitched rectangle die. The Sizzix/Stampin’ Up “Stripes” embossing folder (retired) was used for the background panel, and Recollections Red and Gina K Designs In the Navy card stock was used for the mats.

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Congratulations, Kelly, Kevin, and Keith!

Thanks for checking out my card projects!

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Mirrored Snowflake Thank You Card

This CAS card features the “Snowflake Marquee” die from Memory Box.

This is one die, but it cuts 10 separate pieces – the two halves of the snowflake and the 8 dots. I needed a bunch of these cards, and positioning and adhering all the pieces posed the biggest challenge, but I came up with a few tricks to make it easier…

First, I added Super Tacky Tape by Creek Bank Creations to the back of a piece of silver mirrored card stock and then die cut the shapes. The Super Tacky Tape made all the pieces stickers which made them easier to adhere to the card fronts. In order to get the placement of the pieces right, I created a template first by positioning and die cutting the image from plain white card stock. I was able to place the template over the actual card panels and just drop the silver pieces into the negative spaces on the template. (I used the spacing of the original die, but you could make the space between the halves of the snowflake larger or smaller if desired.)

The greeting is from the “What I Love” stamp set (retired?) by Stampin’ Up, and was heat embossed with Gina K Designs Fine Detail Silver embossing powder. This panel was mounted on a silver mirrored mat and then a heavy weight white base.

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Boxed Set – Simple Floral Thank You Cards

This CAS card design features stamps from “The Art of Life” stamp set from Stampin’ Up and a greeting from “Various Verses” from Gina K Designs (both retired?).

The images were stamped on Recollections Cream card stock with SU Blackberry Bliss and GKD Kraft and Dark Sage inks.  (I needed to mask the flowers and the stems to get the two colors as this is all one stamp.)

I did not have any Blackberry Bliss card stock for the mat, so I repeatedly stamped one of the solid “shading” stamps from the Stampin’ Up “Dressed to Impress” set with Blackberry Bliss ink around the edges of the mat panels.

The stamped panel was embossed with the Stampin’ Up “Subtle” 3D embossing folder to add a bit of texture. (It is recommended that you use Stampin’ Up’s Specialty Plate with their 3D folders.)

The darker card stock all came from the ”

I used my MISTI stamp positioner to create 7 of these stamped panels – 6 for the cards and 1 for the front of the homemade box.

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Goodbye Winnie & Walter – Two Note Cards from One Die Cut

I have two “Clean and Simple” cards to share…

I usually just use scraps when cutting with dies, but with some pre-planning and careful placement, you end up with a “negative” on a panel that could be used to create another card.  Bold word dies like the Winnie & Walter “In A Word: Thanks Cutaway” die work well for creating project-ready die cuts and negatives.  (Sadly, I just learned that Winnie & Walter closed shop at the end of 2019.)

First, I used my airbrush and Copic marker (C5) to create the splattered dots on a white panel sized for the front of my card.  Then I centered the die on the panel and ran it through my die cutting machine.  It’s important to keep the scraps from the die cut (for this one – the piece between the “k” and “s” and the inner pieces of the “a” and by the “n”) because these need to be glued back into the negative space.  By airbrushing first, the dots are on these scraps and match the panel nicely.  In order to position the scraps properly, I temporarily place the die cut back into the “hole” and then glue the scraps into the areas of the die cut from which they came.  Once the scraps are positioned and adhered, the actual die cut can be removed and used on a second card.

Because I airbrushed my dots before cutting, they are also on the die cut for the second card – bonus!!  The embossing folder is “Honeycomb” by Darice.

Thanks for checking out my card projects!