Wish, Hope, Love by By Barbara McNaughton

Hello Crafters,

When being commissioned to make a wedding card, I like to ask a few questions that will help steer my direction to ensure that I make a card the bride and groom are certain to love. I’ll ask what colours are being used (often given away by those that are used on the invite), the location of the reception and whether the couple have a preferred style (for example, contemporary, minimalist, vintage). All this information I take away with me and use it to create a ‘matching’ card.

My latest request was for a young bride and groom with a passion for all things vintage and shabby chic, who are holding their wedding reception in a converted barn, and this is what I came up with. 

This is a simple card, which doesn’t take a huge amount of time to make, and can be made with bits and bobs you already have in your craft stash.

Here are the supplies you’ll need if you want to make one just like mine:

The first step is to trace your butterfly card shape, or to make it even easier for you, use ready shaped cards by WhichCraft? often available on the Hochanda website.

Then, trace another butterfly shape, this time onto patterned paper and adhere to the front of your card blank. I’ve used Cosmic Shimmer Specialist Acrylic Glue.

The next step is to colour the edge of the card to create an aged or vintage look. I used a distress Ink in a subtle brown and a sponge ink applicator. Dab the sponge applicator lightly onto the ink and then apply in small circular motions, starting off the card on your blending mat and then moving towards your card, gently overlapping the edge by no more than a couple of centimetres / half an inch.

That is your base card fully prepared. Now to prepare your embellishments. 

Cut an ornate butterfly from Kraft card using a die and die cutting machine. Small butterflies of this size will fit through even the smallest of die cutting machines. Remember that with ornate designs like this, you may need to rotate your die after the first attempt and then pass through the machine again, just to be sure that all the fine detail cuts correctly.

Next, cut a small banner by hand or use a handy die such as this one,
to make your life easier.

 

Once your banner and your butterfly are cut, edge them with the distress ink and the sponge applicator, as before. Now stamp an appropriate sentiment onto the banner. I used a photopolymer stamp and a clear acrylic block so that I could easily see where to position my stamp.

 

All that is left to do is to assemble your card. Depending on the embellishment you are using, you may wish to use different types of adhesive. For the butterfly and the flowers, I used a hot glue gun, but you could just as easily use Collall 3D glue gel. For the banner, I used self-adhesive foam pads. For the doily, I used Cosmic Shimmer Specialist Acrylic Glue and the pearls and heart shapes were self-adhesive. However, to make them even more secure, I added a dab of Cosmic Shimmer here too. All adhesives mentioned are available on the Hochanda website.

And there you have your finished card. A quick and easy make using bits and bobs from your stash.

Best wishes,

Barbara