Hi my friends! Today's post is a special one for me. I'm taking a little trip down memory lane and sharing some of the handmade cards I would happily make again and again. One of the things I love about crafting is looking back at what I've made over the years. It's fun to see how my skills have grown, which supplies and techniques I still love, and which projects continue to make me smile.
I've grouped some of my favorites into categories and included a little bit about why I'd make each one again. And, of course, I'll share a few crafting hiccups along the way—because nothing handmade has to be perfect, and honestly, that's part of the charm!
So let's start with the first category-- some Christmas cards!
Beautiful and Elegant
Christmas Poinsettia Cards
The poinsettias are what really is the showstopper here, it's a layered die set from Altenew so I die cut the petals using a deep red cardstock from Simon Says Stamp
After I die cut all my petals, I ink blended over them with Pinkfresh Studio inks from my stash to give the petals a deeper, richer coloring and I absolutely loved how 3D dimensional they looked. But, I was done with them, I used yellow cardstock for the centers and ink blended on top of them but I also topped them with white splatters using Tim Holtz, "Picket Fence" Distress Paint. I let them dry before gluing them to the cards.
You'll notice I didn't add a sentiment to these cards. I just decided to add that inside the card because I just couldn't cover up the flowers!
Christmas "Joy" Belly Band
Belly bands are my favorite embellishment to a Christmas Card and a few years ago I made this one using a light blue cardstock along with red and white. The blue is what goes over the card and the red and white I just trimmed to sit on top.
The "Joy" piece is a die from Hero Arts and I just used a circle die set from Waffleflower Crafts to make the circle larger than the "Joy". That red cardstock is the same I used for all these Christmas cards in this post. I also made sure the band could easily fit an A2 cardbase without slipping off. But, I had to make a few because I couldn't get it trimmed to the right dimensions, it either was too loose or too tight, but once I got it right, I jotted down the measurements.
Christmas Patterned Paper
Any of my crafty friends who know me, knows how much I love using pattern paper! And Spellbinders sells some of the most beautiful Christmas card kits that comes with specialty papers, ephemera, pre-die cuts, stamp set, and more! I've bought several kits and these cards came from the "Happy Everything" kit.
I just layered red cardstock with the pattern paper and to give the cards an extra flair, I trimmed the top pieces to show off the pattern paper and to showcase the sentiment and die cuts on top. I also believe I made these in 5"x7" size.
Joy Pattern Paper Christmas Card
This is another wonderful card I'd make again because I just love the pattern papers I used. For this card, I also used the bow die cut but on the Joy piece, I used a white jelly roll pen to make snowflakes and I draw dashes around the circle to give it a frame.
These birthday cards were fun to make and I put them under the clean and simple because all I did was trimmed and layered some pattern paper for my backgrounds. I die cut the balloons from Simon Says Stamp and did simple coloring with my Copic markers. I also die cut the "Celebrate" sentiment, a word die from Pinkfresh Studios from black and white cardstock to give it some dimension. Lastly, I added a secondary sentiment strip to each card and these were done! Clean, Simple and Quick!
This birthday card and tag came about very easily and very simple coloring with ink blending and die cutting. Pattern paper is my background, the ice cream cone is a die set from Scrapbook.com. And, I loved coloring it with Distress Ink "Walnut Stain" and "Vintage Photo". I dobbed some specks with my white jelly roll pen. And I used pre-die cut sentiments for the card and tag.
I learned how to make a storybook card a couple of years ago watching a YT video tutorial and I had so much fun that I made a few. I used pattern papers from my craft stash and for this card above, I loved adding the bible verse to the first card. It was a rub-on transfer. All these cards have three panels (front and back) but folds into an A2 envelope.
These two cards above just speak to my love of anything pink! And, I learned how easy easel cards are to make. I used an embossing folder for my backgrounds. The coneflowers are a die from Honey Bee Stamps "Lovely Layers" collection. I ink blended them with various pinks, greens and yellow inks from Pinkfresh Studio.
These two cards gave me so much joy because I used all chipboard pieces (the window and all the pieces including the sentiments). The card below I did a little ink blending on some cardstock and I added some foam tape for extra dimension.
These two cards were made differently with one as an arch shaker card with some pattern papers. The fall leaves were stickers I bought from my local Dollar Tree, I loved the colors and they fit well against the backgrounds, I added twine as a bow for extra cuteness!
I hope you enjoyed taking this little trip through my cardmaking memories with me. There are so many more cards tucked away in my archives, so who knows? Maybe another walk down memory lane will happen again soon! 😊
The green cardstock for the cardbase is from Simon Says Stamp. I used bakers twine to add a bow and punched a hole so that it mimics a tag. I love making tags! Finally, I added the sentiment. It's a simple card design but for me it packs a punch and it is easy and quick to make.
Clean and Simple Birthday Cards
Ice-Cream Birthday Card and Matching Tag
Prayers Mass-Produced Cards
These cards are perfect when you need to make a bunch at one time. All I needed was a cover die with that has a pattern, colored cardstock and a sentiment. I used various colored cardstock papers that I took the same background cover die and used it like an embossing folder. It left that beautiful design so that the die cut white piece sits on top of all that color! Finally, a word die and sentiment strip and these cards were born! The "prayers" word die is from Pinkfresh Studio, sentiment strips from Simon Says Stamp.
Fun-Fold Cards
Storybook cardsIt's fun because each panel can have its own design or you can stretch one design across the panels just by trimming and gluing the pieces so when the card lays flat, you see the whole design. I tried to do that with all three of these cards!
This card below has that vintage newspaper-like tone that I love! I added pre-die cuts throughout and the sentiment strip on the front.
This card below is my favorite of these three storybook cards, I love the vintage look! I made this for Valentine's day. I also layered some pattern papers on some of the panels and topped it with some heart pre-die cuts.
Shaped Cards
Friendship Arch-shaped Card
I absolutely adore Arches, archways! I wish I could have archways in our home, oooh that would've have been so cool but our home didn't come with archways! But, let's get back to the card!
I have a wonderful A2 size arched die cut set from Ellen Hutson LLC and it is a well-loved set! Shaped cards are fun to make. And for these 2 cards, I used pattern papers and some pre-die cuts from my stash, the sentiments are from Pinkfresh Studio.
Tent Topper Birthday Cards
I remember how much I loved making these cards above! I watched a YT video tutorial from Gina K. Designs, Gina introduced this new way to make card bases for this tent-topper card. I used striped pattern papers from Waffleflower Crafts. I layered it over black cardstock.
With my circle layered dies, I die cut white and black circles, stamped the sentiment and did some simple coloring. I had so much fun making these and I still love how that little topper changes the entire look of the card.
Dimensional Layered Cards
Easel cards
I tried to give my petals an ombre look going from light to dark. Sometimes, my hand is too heavy and I get more ink where I don't want it. In those cases, I keep trying to blend color in but if I can't fix it, then I either cover it up with ink splattering or sometimes I have to die cut the piece again and start over. Finally, I stamped the sentiments on the bottom of the cards that shows when it's standing upright.
For these two cards, I used the same coneflower die but ink blended it with different colorway inks from Pinkfresh Studio. The background, I can't remember if I ink blended it or if it's pattern paper, but what I love most is the fence from Honey Bee Stamps.
It is a large die and I had so much fun ink blending it with my favorite brown inks (Distress "Walnut Stain" and "Vintage Photo") to give it a distressed, rustic look! The sentiments are rub-on transfers. Finally, I did some ink splattering.
Butterfly Dimensional Cards
These two cards are just too cute! The butterfly die is from Lawn Fawn and it's a large-size die set perfect to fill any size card and also great for making shaker cards which happens to be one of my favorite interactive cards to make.
I used an embossing folder for my backgrounds but I used pink and blue pattern papers + white cardstock to die cut the butterflies. I added foam tape for the dimension and filled my butterfly dies with shaker bits and attached it to my card panels. For the pink card, I added a "hugs" word die from Pinkfresh Studio but for the blue one, I just added a simple sentiment strip from Simon Says Stamp.
Fun to Make Cards
My last category for this post! These cards below I placed in this category because they were just so much fun and looking at them reminds me how much I enjoyed making them!
Summertime Cards
For this card above and below were so cool to make, I ink blended the backgrounds using a stencil from Hero Arts with different bright colored inks from Pinkfresh Studio and added pre-die cuts to celebrate summertime. I used my circle dies to show a beach background from some pattern papers in my stash.
Window-View Chipboard Cards
Happy Fall Ya'll Fall-theme Cards
Vintage Layered Cards
Layering cardstock and pattern papers is an absolute favorite technique of mine and I did just that with these cards above. I have a LOT of pattern papers in my stash from previous card projects, 12 x 12 scrapbook papers, paper packs and even card kits. Some are scraps that I just keep in my drawer to make cards like these two.
And I added various ephemera, but I left off sentiments because sometimes I just want to make a card and then add a sentiment later or inside the card. Also, when I need some motivation, this layering method of making cards is my "go-to" to jumpstart my creativity.
Even when I make mistakes along the way like getting extra glue or marker color on my hands and accidentally touch a card, I just pivot in some way so I don't throw away the project.
And that's the thing about every card I've shared here—they were fun to make, they made me smile, and they reminded me why I loved cardmaking so much.
I hope you enjoyed taking this little trip through my cardmaking memories with me. There are so many more cards tucked away in my archives, so who knows? Maybe another walk down memory lane will happen again soon! 😊
Have a fun and creative day!
Kim
