While I have been playing along with a variety of challenges, I haven’t been meeting deadlines. Today is different. Today I can meet three (!!) deadlines with one card. The inspiration for this card came from Ann Murray at Murray Stamps Ink. She’s been making some fabulous cards using the Whale of a Time Suite of products, so I followed her lead. Now I have two other cards in the works using the same suite.

Here’s my card:

Here are the three challenge banners:

Measurements

The layout for this card meets the Freshly Made Sketches #477 challenge. Using a lot of white space and animals meets The Paper Players challenge. Finally, the fish and turtles meet the Paper Craft Crew challenge.

After deciding what DSP pattern I wanted to use for the focal point, I cropped the paper down using the largest square die from the Stitched Shapes die set. Then I trimmed down a piece of Calypso Coral cardstock to 2-7/8 inches square for the mat.

Then, I went back to the basics, starting with the card base. I used Granny Apple Green for the base. It measures 4-1/4 inches by 8-1/2 inches, scored at 4-1/4 inches forming a square card.

Next, I trimmed a Calypso Coral piece of DSP from the Whale of a Time 6 x 6 inch DSP for the bottom mat. This mat measures 4-1/8 inches by 4-1/8 inches.

I needed to have a bunch of white space, so I ran white cardstock through the Big Shot with the Seabed embossing folder. Then, I trimmed the paper down to 3-7/8 inches square, the cut it diagonally in half.

While I had the white cardstock handy, I trimmed a piece to 4 inches square for the inside sentiment panel.

The Evolution

When I started this card, I really thought I would just stamp the greeting on a piece of Bumblebee cardstock and trim it with a Stitched So Sweetly Die, and that would be that. Things didn’t wind up working quite the way I envisioned. Enter a shaker card, which I haven’t done since Christmas.

• The clear medium envelopes are essential when making shaker cards. However, making a very small shaker turned out stickier than I thought. Here are a few tips I learned along the way:
  • Trim the clear envelope down to a manageable size before trying to use the tear and tape on the back of the cardstock.
  • Don’t pull the tear and tape strip covers off until you have your cardstock piece in the corner.
  • While it is necessary to fold the ends of the clear envelope back, make sure you have some give in the front so the shaker part works easily.
  • Using my opposable tweezer to add the fish to the front of the shaker works very well.
• Using the fish die from the Shark dies, I cropped Calypso Coral and Bumblebee fish. Both are inside the shaker.
• Then, I used glue dots to adhere the greeting to the center of the outside of the clear envelope.
• I stamped some Calypso Coral fish all along the bottom of the inside sentiment panel. The inside “happy birthday” comes from the Woodland Wonder stamp set.

Finishing Up

• Since the USPS charges extra postage for square cards, I used a standard medium card envelope. Therefore, I adhered and trimmed a piece of the Whale of a Time DSP to the envelope flap. Then, I punched out a circle of Granny Apple Green DSP for the seal. I have not been using anything wet to seal envelopes and have been writing “no saliva has been used to seal this envelope” on the backs. A few months ago, I realized I could create coordinating circle seals for the envelopes. I ran the seal through my little Xyron create a sticker 150. After running the circle seal through the Xyron, I just slip it into the envelope so I have everything together when I am ready to use the card.
• With that, I’d completed this card/envelope/seal set.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

I’d love to hear what you think, and greatly appreciate every comment.

Have a Peachy Day!

Sue

Colors Used:

Supplies Used:

Butterfly Bouquet is Available Now!

Just look at all that gorgeousness! The butterfly stamp is all one piece, as is the coordinating die. The die will also perfectly crop out butterflies on the coordinating DSP! No coloring needed, unless you want to do so.

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Again, thank you for stopping by my blog today!  I appreciate your comments and your time.