A Few Words--A Boxed Card Set

I have a thing about sketches...I love them! I love that, no matter how many people use the same sketch, no two cards turn out the same. And, I've noticed in the past few months, that I almost always rotate sketches. It can be a fantastic sketch that everyone else uses beautifully in the orientation it's presented in, but for some reason, I feel the need to rotate. So, when I needed a card set for a gift, I decided to put "sketch rotation" to the ultimate test! :)



Here's the Viva la Verve sketch I started with. I mostly stuck to the design, except for the little circle element. For that, I used a button, and it didn't always work in that spot with the stamps I used.

And, here is the set of cards I made with the sketch:

Can you see how I rotated the sketch? The card with the blue strip is the one that most closely follows the sketch.

Seeing the cards individually, it's a little easier to tell what I did. The blue card is in the original sketch orientation, then I rotated the sketch 90 degrees for the orange sketch, another 90 degrees for the red card, then, finally, another 90 degrees for the tan card. I used the same dp for the background of all the cards, and the black circle die cut is the same. But, for the diagonal strips, I chose four colors from the dp and embossed each one of them with a different embossing folder. To make sure they were all at the same angle on the card, I made a little chipboard template of the small triangle formed along the short length of the diagonal strip to position the strips.

I found all these sentiments at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each! Aren't they fabulous? So great for a card set, too. I stamped them all on ivory cs and matted them on black cs leaving just a tiny sliver of black showing. Then, I colored in just one line on each of them with Prismacolor pencils, and added Diamond Stickles over that. The tan card didn't have any open letters to color, so I just Stickled over the word, "Heart."

Do you see what I meant about the buttons? I couldn't put them where they would cover up the text, so rather than trying to follow the sketch there, I just made sure that the button on each card was at least partially on the diagonal embossed strip. In choosing the colors for the twine, the colored strips, and the coloring in the text, I tried to use at least 3 of the accent colors on each card, so one card had a blue strip, red colored text, and brown twine, another card had blue coloring and red twine, and so on.

On the inside of the cards, using the template I had made for aligning the diagonal embossed strip on the front of the card, I cut four pieces of the bg dp, sponged Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges, and placed them in the corner of ivory square die cuts. 

But, since I was going for the "ultimate" sketch rotation, when I glued the panels inside the cards, I positioned the triangle in the corner opposite the same triangle on the front of the card. The individual card above is the inside of the card with the blue strip.

To have coordinating envelopes, using the same four embossing folders that I embossed the colored strips with, I embossed just the envelope flaps of standard A2 sized envelopes.

And, finally, to package up this set, I made a simple belly band for the envelopes, tied jute around the cards, and put them in this cute A2 Small Scallops Stationery Box by Lori Whitlock. Because the cards are square instead of A2-sized, I needed some filler, so I added a little paper crinkle filler.

Here's a look at the scalloped sides on the box. I could have left the top of the box solid, but I love having the clear acetate window in the box. It makes for a nice presentation of a gift set. 

Now, I'm off to make another one! This was FUN!

I'm entering this card set in the following challenges:

Viva la Verve March 2014 Week 3 Sketch Challenge

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Transparent

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes with Buttons

Paper Issues Challenge: Count Your Lucky Stars

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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