All Your Wishes

The final day's lesson of Session 1 of My Favorite Things' Summer School was on "Symmetry." Basically, make a project where the elements on one side mirror the elements on the other side.

I first die cut my quilt squares, using the largest die from the "Blueprints 20" set by My Favorite Things (discontinued). I ran the die through 6 times, using 6 different colors of scrap cardstock for the blocks. When I had finished, I adhered each piece to a scrap of white cardstock, just so I could play with each square with its decorative piece adhered inside the negative space. Then I cut each square out with scissors, making sure to angle the blades under the colored cardstock layers so the white beneath wouldn't show.

I had cut my squares with the idea of putting them basically in rainbow order (by the color of the outer square part). I played around with the arrangement, finally deciding on a landscape orientation. I also cut a banner from "Blueprints 20" for my greeting. Remarkably, it ended up being almost the same length as my block grouping!

For the background, I cut a 5.5x4.25" piece of white cardstock. I stamped it with MFT's "Denim" background stamp (also discontinued) & Hero Arts Pool ink. I missed a couple of spots with the first go-around, so I just inked up part of the stamp & carefully stamped just those areas, making sure to run the diagonal lines in the same direction. This stamp is relatively random in design, so I didn't have to be spot on anyway.

I wanted to cut the sides of the card with a border die, & chose one of the dies from MFT's "Stitched Scallop Basic Edges" set. After I adhered my background panel to a white A2 card base, I die cut one end of the card. I had to run it through a few times, because the die wouldn't cut through all 3 layers of cardstock at first.

At this point, I decided I'd better adhere my squares & greeting banner. I first stamped my greeting, from MFT's "Big Birthday Sentiments," in Versamark ink & heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I adhered my squares & banner to the card, and measured where I needed to die cut the opposite side to make an even border on either side of my focal elements. Then I die cut the other end with the same die as before. Even with all the fussing around I had to do to come up with a design, once I got the arrangement of my elements worked out, this card wasn't too hard to pull together.