Up and Away Birthday

Hi, everyone!

It's Melissa here today sharing a cute birthday card with you. As soon as I saw the sweet little elephants in the Up and Away set, I knew they would be perfect for creating 4-bar notecards since the images were a smaller scale. 

If you aren't familiar with the 4-bar card size, it's basically 3½ x 5 inches and fits into an A1 size envelope. They're the perfect size for a quick birthday or thank you card. Since there isn't a lot of space to work with, they're also great for creating clean and simple (CAS) cards which just so happens to be my preferred style.

I started the card by stamping the elephant and balloon images from Up and Away on white cardstock using Raven Hybrid Ink. I love that LDRS Creative inks are hybrid inks because that means I can use any of inks with a variety of coloring mediums, including alcohol markers. 

While I was stamping, I also used the Raven Hybrid Ink to stamp the sentiments from the Anytime Stack Stamps. I used a stamp positioning tool for this step in case I needed to stamp it a second time to get nice coverage since it's a pretty large image. I then pulled out my die cutting machine to cut the sentiments and the colored images with their coordinating dies.

Here's a quick die cutting tip when using the Sentiment Stack Coordinating Die. Place the die at an angle when sending it through your die cutting machine. You'll find it's much easier to cut this way because the machine doesn't have to work as hard to cut at an angle as it does cutting across a continuous number of straight edges. This tip works with any type of square or rectangle die, too.

Once the coloring and die cutting were done, it was time to assemble the card. I created the card base from a piece of heavy white cardstock cut to 5 x 7 inches then scored at 3½ inches along the 7" edge. I added a piece of cute patterned paper from the Farmer's Market 6 x 6" Paper. I then added my sentiment and colored images using foam squares to pop to up. For a final bit of embellishment, I added some clear shimmer pen to the balloon.

I hope you've enjoyed this quick clean and simple 4-bar card. It's such a fun size. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a go!