Hugs in a Card

The months of June and July are packed with so many friends celebrating their birthdays, including me and my husband! But I didn’t make him or myself a birthday card hahaha. My husband is witness to the process of making one card and I believe he secretly despises my mess (he is a clean-freak but he supports me anyway so he tolerates it hehehe.)

So, no cards for ourselves. Besides, my hands are already full just making cards for our friends alone. 😉

For this one, I decided to revive one of my old card templates. I used Christmas Staircase dies from Stampin’ Up! Trivia: it’s my very first set of stamp and dies and even though it was really expensive for a beginner like me, I just had to get it. I bought it as part of my Starter Kit, which meant I get to choose $300 plus worth of crafting supplies and pay only $169! I didn’t think twice and got the set plus the Sizzix Big Shot. At that time, the company was still selling the machine.

I don’t know why but there’s something so homy about the intricately designed staircase and I just fell in love with it. Originally intented for Christmas season, I knew I could make so many more projects out of the set.

Anyway, here is what have created:

I only used one stamp set for this one to create this lovely surprise birthday party scene – Beary Special Birthday from My Favorite Things. I kept the staircase in white color and used dark cardstock for the walls to make it stand out. Then, I added hot pink and mustard yellow in the color scheme for a festive look.

The hardest part in this card is actually not the staircase and you will see why once you watch the video tutorial. For me, it was assembling the bunting banner (hahaha) because the pieces were so tiny. But I wouldn’t skip this part as it makes a lot of difference in the card, don’t you think?

I made 2 more of this cards, I added other elements and I tried a different color schemes too. This one is in shades of purples and teals.

Then I added the window on the left side, made it look more homey to me. My favorite embellishment on this carf were the glittery pink flowers on each end of the bunting banner. So small yet so stunning!

Finally, I decided to keep the front simple to create an element of surprise.

I used one of the sentiments from the stamp set but I printed it out from the computer to fit the entire right-hand portion. Then I added the gift die cut on the left making sure that nothing is glued on the scored line.

My friends were very happy indeed! 🙂