Don’t you just love to say hello with a handmade card? After all, sending cards to brighten a friend’s day is one of the best feelings in the world!
And one of the ways we get to have some fun designing, then creating!
You and your friend will both enjoy this bright and happy card.
There are so many fun parts to this card, it’s hard to know where to start first.
The cool white heat embossing?
Maybe the coloured dry embossed vellum?
Or the square corner brads?
Let’s find out a bit more about these techniques. Then you can decide if you’d like to try some of them yourself!
Say Hello with a Handmade Card
White Embossed Greeting
You can ‘t go wrong with white embossed words, especially when you have a larger greeting. I love this Biggest Wish stamp set and have used it on so many cards. like this one about how colour makes a difference in card making.
Since you’re embossing onto vellum cardstock, be sure to use an Embossing Buddy and remove all those little stray flecks before you turn on your heat tool. (See my JO-Tips video What is an Embossing Buddy for Rubber Stamped Cards?)
Next, vellum cardstock warps easily when you use too high of a heat to set your embossing powder. Be sure to use the level 1 setting on the Stampin’ Up! Heat Tool to stop this from happening.
Tons of Texture
What fantastic variety in the fonts and words in this Thanks and Hello embossing folder. It does all the work!
One zip through your Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine and you’ve got a perfect background!
Just a TIP to do the heat embossing first, then the dry embossing (since it might be more difficult to get rid of those stray specks of embossing powder if they fall into the ridges of the vellum).
Another TIP: If you want everything square like I have, just use the line at the bottom of the folder to lie up your vellum.
Colour Intensity
While you can certainly use soft pastel colours for this design, I love the PUNCH of the bold teals, blues and greens. Don’t you think it just makes all the words pop right off the card?
To get the best depth of colour, start with the lightest colour first (here the green) and pick it up with your Blending Brush and swirl it onto a few spots. Then pick up the next colour (TIP: use a different Blending Brush), swirl it one, and then your last colour.
Make sure to blend the colours into each other so there are no harsh lines. Also another BIG TIP: Always tap into your ink pad, then tap it once onto a piece of scrap paper, then swirl it lightly on the vellum.
Try not to mix up too many colours. When you have too many, you run the risk of not having them coordinate with each other. That, and you could make brown when that’s the LAST colour you’re going for!
A couple more TIPS?
- attach the vellum to a piece of Basic White which will make the colour stand out even more
- use some white square brads to affix the vellum rather than glue which you could see in behind the vellum
- go sparingly on the rest of the embellishments. This card has lots of pizzazz without needing more.
If you love playing with vellum, especially embossing on it, as much as I do, this post with some bonus info on common greeting card sizes is great to take a read.
Time to Emboss!
Pick out your favourite colours, an embossing folder and your vellum cardstock to play with this design. Make a square card like I did or change it up to whatever is your fave size.
If you like, click here to see all the supplies I used that you can pin, print or order from!
A word of caution though! These techniques can be a bit addicting! 😋
In fact I predict with all the cards you make, you’ll be able to say hello with a handmade card to many friends, many times over LOL!
