Today I’d like to share a wedding card I made recently.
You may not be aware, but I make cards for a local gift shop. For the past few months the own has been screaming out for wedding cards. She can’t get enough of them, she said. So I’ve been working on wedding cards over the past few weeks so she can restock her shelves.
The dilemma I have is that the payment for the cards is not great. It helps restock my craft supplies for sure, but it’s not enough to go and have a spending spree. For each card, I am paid $5, which isn’t too bad, except the owner loves cards with lots of ribbon and pearls, and other bling.
Trouble is, I can’t justify adding a lot of bling if I want a reasonable return. (There is a reason I’m telling you all this, I promise!)
I recently purchased the Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder. It’s one of those reversible folders, so you get two designs in one folder. Pretty darned cool.
Anyway, the one I chose was perfect for wedding cards (see above). So I made my card, but felt it needed more. More of what I wasn’t sure. So I tried a dry run with a couple of pearls – it made a huge difference to the look of the card. It was elegance plus, compared to the original card with no pearls.
But…. adding the number of pearls I needed to spruce this card up was going to cost a fortune. Until I remembered my Liquid Perfect Pearls.
As can be seen above, I made a number of ‘pearls’ using the liquid perfect pearls. But because the rest of the card was already finished and put together, I wasn’t willing to do them directly onto the card. I took the leftover plastic from craft purchases (such as Spellbinder dies or Cuttlebug Embossing Folders) because it’s nice and sturdy, and added some pearls to it.
The best thing about this is it doesn’t matter if every pearl isn’t perfect, as you don’t add them until they’re dry. As you can see, I did a heap in different colors. That way you’ll always have a variety of colors on hand to use when neeeded.
But I digress…
Once the pearls were well dried (I left them overnight, but 2-3 hours is generally enough), I took them off with a craft tool, added a small amount of Glossy Accents, and added them to the card.
One of the tricks I learned doing this is to add the pearls and then while it’s still wet, gently tap the plastic base onto a table or workbench. That will help to round them up like bought pearls. It does take a bit of practice to get them fairly even, but I personally think it’s well worth it.
If you enlarge the photo (of the hand-made pearls) you’ll see I tried to make some ‘pearls’ in heart shapes. They all disintergrated – I think I made them too thin, but I’ll give it another go down the track. Who knows, they could turn out perfect!
Okay, so now onto the card!
This card was incredibly easy to make.
I used ivory cardstock, A2 size, and folded it in half. I then took another sheet of cardstock in the same color and cut it in half, making it slightly smaller than the base card.
Taking the Spellbinders M-Bossabilities folder – Lovely Lattice design – I embossed only about three quarters of the card topper.
I then took a strip of the same cardstock, cutting it to size to fit across the card, then found some matching ribbon to go over that strip. After adhering the ribbon (ensuring the ribbon was folder under the topper for tidiness), I adhered the strip with the ribbon to the topper. Then I cut a label from Spellbinders Labels 20, and stamped it with the greeting. In this case, I used a Gina K designs stamp.
I placed the label to the left side, then took a leftover flower from a wedding card I’d made last year for my nephew, and literally rubbed it over the ink pad of Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spun Sugar. I then sprayed it lightly with water and let it dry. Once it was completely dry (about 15 minutes) I used some Stickles Stardust around the edges to give it some sparkle.
Using a pointy craft tool, I made a small hole in the topper so I could feed the wire part of the flower through to the back so it wasn’t seen.
It ws at that point that I decided the card needed pearls to give it more elegance. Don’t get me wrong, it was okay before, just not as great as it could have been.
Next time I make a card like this, I’ll probably put the Liquid Perfect Pearls on before putting the rest of the card together. Or I might just do what I did here, and make them off the card then add them. Yep, I’m a scaredy cat!
Lovely card Cheryl – the embossing folder is beautiful, and the pearls do add that extra something!
I make cards and sell them to friends for $5 – I’m not looking for profit, as I would make cards anyway, but I do love the ‘formal’ acknowledgement that some payment gives to my efforts. I would love to have a craft stall of something like that, but with insurance required by our local council, it seems prohibitive at this point. I did suggest that not many people are injured by cards, but that didn’t wash with them, unfortunately! Maybe one day I will bite the bullet and do some serious selling! Till then I will continue to make cards and enjoy the efforts of others.
Ann recently posted..Sweet n’ Sassy Digi Challenge – Design Team
Beautiful wedding card, Cheryl. Love the story, and I agree, it’s not enough money for these lovely cards. However, love how you thought of a more economical way to do it. Question: How long before you “tap” the pearls to make them round. I see quite a few there, was wondering if you tapped the back often or just at the end? I was always put off by making them because of the “not perfectly rounded” look, so your directions sure help! thanks! I wonder if coloring the white ones (with copic markers) is still true with the home-made ones? Just curious. Lovely card, and clever idea!
Anna, I usually ‘tap’ after about six or so pearls. If you leave it too long they’ll start drying and won’t budge.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have any copics so I have no idea whether you can use them on these pearls.
As you can see from the image, I have a few colors of the liquid perfect pearls. They’re pretty cheap – only a few dollars a bottle – but it could be worthwhile trying out some copics with white liquid pearls. Especially if you want to match up colors.
Oh Cheryl, this is just what I needed this week! I have this wedding to go to this weekend, and no card! Thanks a bunch, yours are just beautiful! Love the pearls! Can’t wait to do some.
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