Happy Saturday, the last Saturday of 2018! We have chilly rainy weather this weekend, so I've been cocooning in my play room creating and puttering and generally not caring about time or temperature.
I have a 5.5"square card to share today. It is a birthday card for a childhood girlfriend.
My card is a sketch from earlier in 2018 at Sweet Sketch Wednesday, where the challenge is to pick and use your favorite 2018 SSW sketch. One neat thing about this challenge blog is that all the sketches are for square cards. It was hard to choose! A few months back I had pulled a bunch of 12x12 patterned paper out to make envelopes with. I ended up using this pink sheet for my card because I wanted to try my own version of the Triple The Fun technique and really liked the white circle, so I cut two pieces for the front and back of my card from the corners of the sheet.
I then took a square Spellbinders Postage Stamp Nestie and cut out the center of my front sheet, layered it onto a white card stock mat and then a reddish-pink card stock mat. I made two smaller squares in similar fashion, adhered them to opposite corners of my center square and then adhered that back onto and over the cut-out, being careful to line up the points of the arc. I used sentiment stamps from Papertrey Ink's Inside & Outside Birthday set, but I can't remember who made the paper. I want to say Urban Lily, but it also could have been from a DCWV or similar paper pad.
Anyway, I LOOOOOVE how it turned out, pretty sophisticated if you ask me. And good thing, it is going to a girlfriend who dresses up every year for the Kentucky Derby and hosts teas in her home, so I'm thinking she will love it too. I used VersaMark and Ranger White Seafoam embossing powder on the sentiment to match the enamel dots - both are almost cream-colored and they pop a shine in contrast to the white of the paper. I used my white 110# Recollections Heavy card stock as the base and SU card stock in a reddish-pink shade, so this card is quite sturdy. The back features a Spellbinders Label die with another of my siggie stamps. I used Festive Berries Distress ink and clear embossing powder to stamp it. I had excellent luck finding card stock and ink in my stash to match this paper well enough.
The challenges I'm joining with this card are:
(I added the shine of enamel dots and embossing powder to this card)
(I've used white!)
(A birthday is a festivity!)
(I used Spellbinder dies for the focal top layers)
(Entry #2/2 allowed)
(I am celebrating a friend on her birthday)
On A Side Note:
I've been getting more comfortable this past year with making square cards, having found a good source for envelopes and getting more educated about how to mail them and what postage is required. I've also been learning about what the USPS calls a Large Letter / Flat or "Thick" Letter. For us card makers who mail cards and like to add a little dimension, this relatively new mail category is worth knowing about because otherwise we'd have to mail anything greater than 1/4" thickness as a package. A Large Letter weighing 1.5 ounces costs $1.25 to mail and a package of same weight costs $3.50, the savings add up! A Large Letter requires one side of mail piece to measure more than 6.125", so the 6" square card with a 6.5" envelope qualifies. And you get up to 3/4" thickness! Haven't completely figured out if I have to add a non-machineable $.21 to that for being square and not rectangle, but I'm working on finding out. (And I am aware of the rate changes coming up January 29th.)
If anyone has any advice or info about mailing cards as Large Letters/Flats, I would love to know it. Please leave a comment!
That's it for me today! Enjoy your weekend, thanks for dropping by and be blessed!
xoxo
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