Wish Big

Ellen Hutson is celebrating their 11th year in business! As part of the celebration, they have a challenge for people to choose their favorite Essentials by Ellen stamp or die set, and create a project with it. I couldn't narrow it down to just one, so I went with 2: "Bokeh Dots" & "Wish Big." The "Wish Big" set is such a great one for birthdays, with designer Julie Ebersole's signature humor to it! And "Bokeh Dots" is quite versatile. I used it here to create my patterned paper. My color scheme came from the mood board for this month's "Pin-sights" challenge, also at Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom.

I found this tutorial at Splitcoaststampers.com for a Triangle Trifold card. I decided this would be perfect for my cousin's upcoming birthday! I made mine a bit larger, starting with a 12x4" piece of coral-colored cardstock. After I scored & folded it following the instructions, I cut a piece of white cardstock to 3.75" square. I stamped it with 5 of the "Bokeh Dots" stamps, in Memento Teal Zeal, Grape Jelly, & Danube Blue inks. After I had stamped the entire square, I went back with a slightly smaller dot and Delicata Golden Glitz ink. I dried that with my heat tool, cut the paper diagonally, and adhered it to my card base.

Front panel with vellum overlay lifted

For the front image panel, I cut another square of white cardstock. I stamped the cake from "Wish Big," after wiping the ink off the top portion for some quick-and-dirty "masking." Then I stamped the candles, and drew in the rest of the top around those. I colored everything with my Prismacolor colored pencils, using Gamsol on a paper stump to blend the colors. I made 2 mats for that panel, by cutting gradually larger squares of white cardstock. I inked around the perimeter of the smaller mat with Danube Blue ink, and the larger with Golden Glitz. I also inked the back of the larger mat with Golden Glitz, since half of it would be visible when the card is opened.

Since I didn't have room on the front for a greeting, I decided to create a vellum overlay. So I cut a square of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum to the same size as my cake square, and stamped the greeting (also from "Wish Big") on that. I heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder, then sewed it to the image panel with 2 lines of gold machine stitching.

Inside of card

For the inside, I cut another panel of white cardstock, and a slightly larger white mat. I inked the mat with Teal Zeal. I stamped one of the balloons & the "happy birthday" in Teal Zeal, and colored the balloon with a coordinating colored pencil. I blended that out with Gamsol as well, leaving a white highlight. Then, I matted the white panel, and adhered it to the inside center of my card base. I also adhered the front image panel to the front of my card.

Card with belly band

For the belly band, since this card design doesn't really stay closed on its own, I cut another strip of the same coral cardstock I'd used for the card base. I punched each long side with a Fiskars "Cupcake" border punch (apparently discontinued). I cut a strip of white cardstock to fit along the middle section, & colored it with Danube Blue ink. I adhered it to my belly band, folded the band around my card, & used Scor Tape to glue the ends together. This card only took about 2 hours to make, even with all the stamping, and I'm sure my cousin will love it! :)

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: "Anything Goes"
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"