“I Do” Wedding Box Card (take 2…and 3!)

(inside: Wishing you a beautiful life together)

I can be very stubborn and don’t give up easily on an idea that I am not thrilled with, even when it would be so much easier to just start over!  I thought I was done with the wedding box card I posted yesterday, but I ended up back in my craft room last night, (still trying to design a card base to hold it) and this morning (trying to improve on the stand-alone box card design – that I show towards the end of this post and have since added to yesterday’s post).  Sorry for the long post; it’s been a long few days!

First, the card base design…

The first challenge was to make my new card base work with the “monochromatic-ness” of the piece I created yesterday.  I know I said I was determined to stick with one color, but it just wasn’t working for me with so much card around it.  Maybe next time!  I ended up using Karen Foster’s two-sided “Congratulations” card stock, more from the Recollections “Shimmer Champagne and Silver” pack, and some Gina K charcoal brown (for the front).

The second issue that needed to be addressed:  the whole box card portion shifts to the right when it is folded flat but shifts to the left when it opens which created a problem with making it fit (when closed) but also making it “appear” centered (when opened). After much playing around, I ended up making a gatefold card base with uneven front flaps.  The left flap is wider to compensate for the extra space created on the right when the box card portion opens and shifts to the left.  (It’s not perfect, but it’s better than when my side flaps were the same size.)

I un-attached the front flap (of the box card) that I had tacked down yesterday, lined the top and bottom with some of the congratulations card stock (it was sticky without it!) and added a panel for my sentiment and signature.  The stamp used is from the Gina K Designs “A Beautiful Life” set and was stamped with Stampin’ Up Early Espresso ink.

I originally wanted to center my greeting panel on the card front by attaching it directly to the left panel, but you could see some of the back of it hanging over the left side when the card was opened, and I wasn’t happy with the way that looked.  So I ended up adding the greeting panel to a belly band that slides on and off the card which worked out well because the thick card did not want to stay closed without it!  The stamp is by Hampton Arts (no name on it) and was stamped with Early Espresso ink.

Just for fun, I decided to try adding a battery operated tealight under the box card portion….

While not exactly what I was going for, I could live with this base design which works with the skinny box structure.

Once I finished with this card, I got to work re-doing the actual box card.  I changed the dimensions and added some patterned paper to spruce it up a bit.  Here’s my new design:

I used all the same materials and elements that I used on yesterday’s card, but I needed to add a few additional things since the box was bigger.  I needed an extra “row” inside my box so I added a scrap of a die-cut that looked like it could be flowers, grass, etc.  (It is actually part of a tree die cut that I had planned to put behind the gazebo, but it was much too busy.)  I also added the love die cuts on both side flaps (made with my Fiskars Teresa Collins Love Punch); they just needed a little something.  The Karen Foster’s “Congratulations” card stock added a bit of interest while still keeping the card monochromatic – sort of!  (The sentiment is under the front flap as it was on the original card.)  I like this soooo much better as a stand-alone design!

Thanks for checking out my card projects…again!

“I Do” Wedding Box Card (with photo of new card design added)

You’ll see as you read further, that I was not happy with the dimensions of the “finished” design that I originally posted.  After posting that version of the card, I went back and reworked the design, and I’ve amended this post to include the “new finished” card (above).

Here’s the version I thought was my finished card at the end of day 1 (and the card I originally posted for this post):

This version is still quite different from my original idea!

When I first sat down to make a wedding card, I knew I wanted to try a white on white, monochromatic card.  I’ve tried this on several occasions in the past and always ended up adding another color.   I was determined to stick with one color this time, and that’s about all that was left from my original idea for this initial version!

My first thought was to attach a few wedding themed die cuts to an embossed card front.  In order to help my die cut layers stand out from one another, I cut them several times and stacked/glued them together creating chipboard-like cuts.  They were so sturdy that I started thinking that they could very easily stand on their own and then tried to create a z-fold card inspired by this sample I found online:

Isn’t it just the cutest?!  Anyway, I created my pop-up mechanism (similar to the crib above with the three parallel panels but made with very short, plain strips instead) and attached the gazebo and the bride and groom die cuts to it.  (I planned to use the heart on the front when the card was closed.)  The problem was that I wanted my inner pop-up pieces to be completely hidden when my card was closed, and I just couldn’t figure out how to make that work with this z-fold type card base and the size of my pop-up structure.

So my next thought was to use my pop-up mechanism to create a box card.  It ended up skinnier than most box cards (because it was supposed to be in the z-fold!), and it also became super tall when I decided to put the heart on the front flap.

I was not quite ready to give up on the z-fold design, so I glued the flaps down (mistake?!) and wasted quite a bit more paper and time trying to come up with a card base that would work with my box card.  No luck so I finally decided to leave it a “skinny” box card and call it a day.  (It’s the weird size that is still bugging me.  Sigh…..)

The card stock was from the Recollections “Shimmer Champagne and Silver” pack.  I embossed the background panels with the Sizzix/Stampin’ Up “Stripes” embossing folder.  I used the “Gazebo” d-lites die from Spellbinders, the “Hollowout Heart” die from Whitelotous, and the “Bride and Groom” die from Otgo.

There is space on the back for a message to the bride and groom.  This card folds flat for mailing, and when folded, it measures about 7.75×4.5 inches.  I created a custom envelope for this card, but it would have fit (with extra room) into an A9 (5.75 x 8.75 inches) envelope.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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For Your Bridal Shower

Recently, I made an “inside-out card” (HERE) where the card front is pretty simple, and the inside is the more elaborate part meant to be displayed.  I needed to make a bridal shower card and thought I’d go with that idea again.

The above photos show the inside of the card after the card is opened and the front is flipped over.  Below is the front of the card before it is opened:

For details on how I made this card and for more photos… Continue reading →