So recently, I was invited to an (under 10 people) family gathering to celebrate July birthdays. And it just so happens that the day before, I’d received the new, bright and cheerful “Whale of a Time” suite, and I was very much itchin’ to dig in and start working with it. So here’s what happened…
About this card...
The finished size of this card is 5-1/2″ square. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve made a square card… likely because I have no square envelopes left of the required size, and the envelope maker tool has retired, too. And I couldn’t remember how to measure and make an envelope out of other paper. (Great reasons to refrain from making square cards, huh?)
Fortunately, after a half-hour or so of fumbling around, I was able to remember (or reinvent; not sure which is more honest) how to make a custom-sized envelope from some coordinating DSP using my Simply Scored board and its diagonal insert (the latter of which is also retired; I just happen to still have mine).
But back to the card itself...
The front of the card is a delightful piece of 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) from the suite, trimmed down to 5-1/2″ square, and mounted onto a folded piece of 5-1/2″ x 11″ Whisper White Thick Cardstock. I hated to have to trim the DSP at all because it was so lovely in its original state, but I just trimmed off little slivers at a time so as to maintain its visual balance around the edges.
Then I stamped the fishes (Terracotta Tile) and turtle (Shaded Spruce) directly onto the DSP. I stamped the whale (with Blackberry Bliss) onto scrap Whisper White cardstock, and punched out that image, along with 3 additional layers. Then stacked them all up and glued them all together to give the whale a little more dimension without having to resort to Stampin’ Dimensionals. For the water spouts above his head, I applied some Blackberry Bliss ink to a remaining scrap of white cardstock with a dauber, and then punched out the droplet shapes. All the punched pieces eventually got adhered to the DSP with Multipurpose Liquid glue, and that whole element was adhered to the card front.
For the inside...
I decided to decorate the entire 11″ length, using images from the stamp set, in colors from the DSP. If you look closely, you may see that I used a foam brayer to add Balmy Blue to the lower 2/3 of the whole surface, starting at the bottom edge with each stroke and pulling upwards to yield a decreasing intensity of color moving upwards.
All-in-all, I absolutely adore this suite, and particularly the DSP! (Which I just about need a 2nd pack of already, lol.)
If you cuncur with the “adorable-ness” of this suite, go check it out beginning on page 94 of the 2020-2021 Annual Catalog. And you can purchase the various elements individually at my online store. (Once in the store, just enter “Whale of a Time” in the search bar.)
