Each of our answers to these questions is apt to vary. They hold some universal similarities, however, and attest to the fact that a good many of us, especially those who are presently self-isolating, are missing loved ones, be they near or far right now.

The majority of my own (small) family, lives within about a three-hour radius from our home. As we’re all isolating though, we haven’t been able to get together for several weeks now and it’s anyone’s guess as to when doing so will be possible again.

My family is far from alone in this boat. It’s a scenario that many of us are experiencing right now and is, for some people, proving to be amongst the most difficult aspects of life as it presently exists.

I’m missing my relatives something fierce and have begun making thinking of you cards to send to some of them, as the pandemic stretches ever onward.

Recently I whipped up this eye-catching, generously sized thinking of you card for a younger member of our family who is the picture of au courant style, modernity, and hip personal taste.

Well before this thinking of you card came into being, the moment I saw Carta Bella’s chic, gorgeous Spring Market collection, its imagery and colour palette made me think of this person, so I knew it would be just the ticket for a card destined for them.

Modern shabby chic thinking of you card

What is modern shabby chic?

Glad you asked!

While I doubt there’s an official definition chiselled in stone anywhere, I personally tend to view it as a 21st century adaptation of the classic shabby chic style that has a youthful, slightly less vintage centred aesthetic to it.

Feminine details (such as flowers, gingham, ribbon and bows) can still be present, as can pale colours, but this take on shabby chic welcomes you to use darker hues, modern patterns, and fun, quirky details (oversized plastic fern, anyone?) as well.

Were we talking home décor, you might even find some industrial or Scandi details thrown into the mix, and of course they can come out to play on your paper crafting projects as well.

I hesitate to call it the millennial take on shabby chic, but objectively, that would be a fair way to describe it, if one was so inclined.

This is a big card. Perhaps the tallest I’ve ever made. While plenty of store bought cards measure eight inches or taller, we don’t tend to see nearly as many oversized cards in the handmade card world.

I tend to favour larger cards to begin with, so upping the height of mine a bit more than (my) usual wasn’t tricky at all.

I won’t be reaching for a card base this size every day, of course, but every now and then it can be heaps of fun to play with a larger card front that almost feels a bit like a small LO or a good sized mini album page.

The sentiment cut-apart piece was the jumping-off point for the colour palette and embellishments that I used here. A mix of white, pink, red, soft green, light browns, and eye-catching black, as well as a few hits of light cream peppered throughout the design.

Putting this feminine thinking of you card together

To start with, I created a generously sized card base out of basic white cardstock, followed by various layers of patterned paper and coloured cardstock.

I then mixed harmoniously hued patterned papers from the same collection here to add to the stylish modern feel of this design.

Two heart-shaped doilies (one red, one white), an ornate die cut rectangle and its respective frame (from glossy black cardstock), tags cut out of patterned paper, the sentiment piece, and some die cut grey and light brown branches/springs came next.

Once those elements were in place, I added a green plastic fern leaf, some paper flowers in various sizes and colours, a skinny text print strip (at the bottom of the card), and a few grey enamel dots to pick up the grey that appears in some of the other elements on this card (including the sentiment piece).

Unlike a lot of my makes, where I scrutinize every last detail, rearrange things multiple times, and generally take hours to create a single card, I took a much more devil-may-care approach, if you will, here and went with my first instincts on the entire design.

I have to say, it was both strange and liberating feeling to put something down and essentially let it live there when all was said and done. While I didn’t glue my card elements in place until I was pleased with the final design, again, I did take things easy and let the moment guide me.  

This wasn’t a card that felt like it needed to be over thought to death and I rather love that about it. 

Card making tips and ideas from this project

–Use the negatives (borders/areas left after you cut out a die cut shape) from your die cuts on your projects. While some might not work well in this capacity, others, especially when they create frames or easily recognizable shapes definitely can be used and they are a great way to get extra mileage out of your paper and card stock stash.

-Raid the artificial flower selection of dollar, craft, houseware, and big box stores for materials to use in your paper crafting projects.

Plastic, fabric, and silk versions of leaves, ferns, branches, and blooms can all be put to work on cards, layouts and other projects. Plus, in some cases, you may be able to get more flowers (or leaves, etc) for your money than with similar pre-packaged selections from paper crafting brands.

–Let ornate doilies do the job of die cuts. You could easily use ornate (circular, heart-shaped, mandala, etc) die cuts here, if you wished, but as I had two lovely, fancy heart-shaped doilies on hand in colours that worked fabulously with my project, I opted to put them to work on this make.

And remember, you can altar the colour of many white or variously coloured doilies, if needed. I didn’t do so here, but had I wanted to, things such as light layers of spray ink, pencil crayons (colour pencils), pastels, chalk, ink, paint, glitter, and embossing power would have been ways of going about doing so.

-Repeat motifs in different sizes and materials. Here, the two heart-shaped doilies are joined by a dimensional cream coloured wicker heart to create that trusty design standard: an uneven number of similar elements.

-To convey a sense of shabby chic, tear or otherwise distress some of your papers and/or cardstock, as I did with one of the pattern paper layers.

-A card like this can get mighty busy, mighty fast, so aim for cohesiveness in your colour palette, pattern sizes, and the types of embellishments that you use.

-Sending or hand delivering bouquets or arrangements of actual flowers to perk up their day might not be possible at present, but we can convey a similar sense of floral cheer by including blooms of all sizes, shapes, colours, styles and designs on our cards.

-While I didn’t do so here, a card of this nature would take kindly to things such as a splattering of paint, gouache, or spray ink, if you fancied.

Products used to make this layered, contemporary style card

-White, dark red, light grey and light brown cardstock

-Glossy black cardstock – Glossy Black Mirror Card from Tonic Studios

-Various patterned papers – Spring Market 6×6 inch paper pad from Carta Bella

-Floral tag cut-aparts – Spring Market Floral Tags from Carta Bella

-Ornate frame die

-Branch, spring or slender leaf die(s)

-White and red paper doilies (or similar die cut hearts)

-Assorted sizes of black, pink, red, white and/or cream flowers

-Plastic fern, leaf or branch (or similar die cut piece)

-Cream or white coloured woven wicker heart (dollar stores, craft stores, eBay and AliExpress can be good sources for these kinds of woven heart embellishments)

-Grey enamel dots – Classic SS728D Enamel Dot Stickers from Forever In Time

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Thinking of you cards are like hugs in our mailboxes

Given that a good many of us are presently in isolation, I realize that popping out to the mailbox (unless perhaps you have one located right near your house; which we do not) isn’t the easiest or potentially safest of tasks. As such, ending our handmade thinking of you cards out may not be a breeze right now.

If you are leaving your house, be it regularly or occasionally, that does make things simpler. If not, one option is to make cards and then take photographs or videos of them, sending those pics or vids to the respective recipients of your greetings.

When dashing out to the mailbox becomes feasible again, you can then post your greetings with a heartfelt personal message inside letting that person know how much they are (or were, if it’s after the fact) on your mind during the pandemic.

And, if applicable, perhaps inviting them together again once it’s safe to do so.

While I do plan to post this card on a future (rare) excursion out of the house, in general, that’s my approach between mailbox trips right now.

There are few things more heartwarming or meaningful than knowing you’re on the mind of someone who cares about you.

If you have the chance, I highly encourage you to whip up a few thinking of you, missing you, just because or similar types of cards for your loved ones to convey precisely that message.

Your thoughtfulness will brighten their day and hopefully help them to feel like the circumstances that are presently keeping you apart are a bit easier to bear.

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this card – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post Modern Shabby Chic Thinking of You Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Like many of us, I’m drawn to the sweet, tender shades of the current season when paper crafting during the spring months (which I got the ball rolling on a few weeks ago with my Be Amazing Springtime Bird’s Nest Card).

With that very palette in mind, as my paternal grandma’s birthday rounds the bend next month, I recently set to work creating a card for her special day.

Shabby chic springtime happy birthday card

My grandma is a lovely woman who has had a lifelong passion for crafting (particularly knitting, sewing, and fabric doll making) and beautiful home décor.

Years before the term “shabby chic” entered mainstream vernacular, she had peppered her home with elements that would now fit squarely under that banner – along with ones that were rustic country and American primitive.

I learned about Victoria magazine, how to make a sublime English trifle, the best way to hang laundry on an outdoor line, and when a raspberry is perfectly ripe for the picking all from my grandma.

I attribute several of my own lifelong interests and passions to her as well – not the least of which is my unending love of, and interest in, the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Growing up, my grandma’s house was full of soft, sweet, thoroughly feminine touches. There was white wicker furniture on the covered deck, cabbage rose print bedding, a pale blue bathroom, crisply pressed table linens in Easter worthy shades, and much more.

My grandparents moved from that house over twenty years ago now. Some of those same elements went with them to the home they relocated to after retiring. Naturally though, a fair number changed with their new abode, downsizing, and shifting interests.

Still, when I think of my grandparent’s home as it looked in my early youth, the colours that I used in this birthday card are amongst those that jump out at me first. As such, I was eager to incorporate them in my grandma’s birthday greeting this year.

As much as I would have loved to go for an even more dimensional card, Canada Post has a rather irksome letter mail height limit of just 2cm (not inches, centimetres!) under which letter-sized mail must fit. If it goes over that thickness, you’re looking at parcel rates, which even at a national level are nothing short of comically steep in this country.

Therefore, if I know a card that I make is going to be mailed off (be it within Canada or abroad), I try to keep it on the flatter side.

This doesn’t automatically mean that I can’t still involve multiple layers, embellishments and plenty of engaging details. Thankfully that remains possible for many different types of cards.

Putting this feminine spring birthday card together

Funnily enough, I had originally taken some of the elements used on this card out to make a different birthday card that day. As soon as this design started to take shape, however, I knew that it was destined for my grandma.

I began with a sheet of lightly textured pale pink cardstock for my card base. This was then topped with a beautiful piece of white on cream lace print paper.

Another layer of the same light pink cardstock, pale blue printed paper that I embossed (though the embossing ended by being so obscured here, I won’t even mention the folder in the product list), and  various ornate die cut frames and border pieces were the next to be added.

I then fussy cut the large piece of floral print paper from a gorgeous sheet of Prima paper and positioned it to intentionally overhang a wee bit off the left-hand side of the card.

Next, I dug around in my stash for a vintage-y looking piece that tied into the theme of birthdays and found it in the lovely Webster’s Pages mini calendar page that I tucked behind the flowers (and banner).

After that, it was on to the banner. A few die cut banner pieces created from pale sage green and the same light pink cardstock used before, each of which I added faux stitching to with a white Uniball pen.

I topped each banner flag with a round pink and white Jenni Bowlin alphabet sticker to spell the word “happy” and strung them on a length of rustic braided garden twine that I attached to my card with mini clothes pegs.

If you don’t have banner flag/pennant dies, you can cut as many matching shaped and sized strips of paper or cardstock as you need by hand instead (I’ve done this many times for various projects over the years).

I wanted a bit more texture on this card, so I included a springtime perfect piece of classic daisy chain style white trim. To complement this trim and to help the fussy cut floral panel stand out a bit more, I die cut some leaves with trailing vines from basic white cardstock.

Next, I die cut the banner outline from pale brown cardstock and the decorative label shaped piece from light sage green cardstock. I stamped my classic sentiment of “happy birthday” in dark green ink and added some faux stitching around it with a white Uniball pen.

A few soft pink Prima gems nestled here and there, a flourish of pink pearls atop the fussy cut flower panel, and some strategically placed Glossy Accents on various parts of that panel finished off this pastel hued birthday greeting that I suspect many shabby chic lovers would enjoy receiving.

Card making tips and ideas from this project

-Obvious though this may sound, card bases do not have to be white, kraft, or black. They can be any colour that works for your project and are a great way to help set the tone for the rest of the palette that you’ll build on top of it.

-Look for trims that match or complement your die cuts and vice versa. Here, the white fabric trim goes awesomely with the border on the rectangular die cut piece that I used behind my sentiment.

-If you’re working with a large area of patterned paper (in this case, the fussy cut floral panel), try to match/harmonize as many of the other elements used on your card to that panel. This is what I did with my choice of light pink, blue, and green cardstocks.

–Hand drawn stitching works fabulously for small pieces and fiddly shapes that might be tricky to machine stitch on without potentially damaging (or if you don’t have – or don’t want to use – a sewing machine).

If you don’t already have a good quality white gel pen, I suggest investing in one if possible. They’re hugely useful for drawing stitches by hand on a huge range of different cardstocks and papers.

-I used rustic garden twine here for the string that the banner flags hang from, but you could easily swap in baker’s twine, hemp cord (natural or dyed), yarn or wool, a skinny piece of ribbon, beading chain, or a strip of paper or cardstock instead.

-Mini clothes pegs/pins are one of my favourite embellishments (they last appeared here in my Only Love Lets Us See scrapbook layout). They’re tons of fun, can be found from various online and offline sources (from eBay to Etsy to some dollar stores and craft stores), and add heaps of charm to any most any project.

-Let a little bit of your card base show. A design this full and eye-catching isn’t exactly overflowing with empty space. To help the eye rest and the design stops short of being too busy, I often like to ensure that a wee bit of the card base is visible in at least two areas of my design. In this case, that occurs at the top and bottom of the card.

Repeating the same pale pink colour of cardstock in the center panel of the card also helps to give a sense of open or white space, as it tricks, so to speak, the eye into thinking that it’s part of the largest area of the card (the base), when in fact it’s one of the last layers.

Products used to make this pastel floral birthday card

-White, light pink, light blue, light sage (or similar toned) green, and light brown or kraft coloured cardstocks

-Floral print paper – Rose Avenue Suite Collection Paper from Kaisercraft (the white + cream lace print paper that I also used here is the pattern on the back of this sheet)

-Happy birthday sentiment stamp

-Dark green ink pad – Ranger Archival Ink in Library Green

-Various decorative frame metal dies (or border punched pieces)

-Elegant border die (or punch or premade fancy border strip)

-Mini calendar page – Mini Calendar Cards from Webster’s Pages

-Mini alphabet stickers – Butterfly Pink Stickers from Jenni Bowlin

–Mini wooden clothes pins

-Natural braided twine (see tips above for alternative product ideas that you can use here, too)

-Pink pearl embellishment flourish (this one is from Zva Creative – Prima and Recollections have released similar ones over the years as well)

-Light pink faceted adhesive gems – Midnight Garden Say It In Crystals from Prima

-White floral design trim – Vicki B. Wraps from Bo Bunny

–Ranger Glossy Accents (optional)

–Signo Uniball white ink pen

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Keep your recipients in mind when creating cards

While it’s definitely useful to have some general purpose cards on hand for birthdays and various other occasions that work well for a wide range of recipients, whenever possible, I truly love tailoring my projects to the person (or people – say a couple or family) who is going to be receiving it.

That’s exactly what I did with this cheerful, confectionary hued birthday card for my dear Grandma.

The past couple of years have not been the easiest for my grandparents, including on the health front, and I really wanted to convey my wishes for a positive b-day celebration and year ahead (which is why I purposefully used the word “happy” here two times).

I sincerely hope that my grandma’s birthday abounds with happiness – just as trips to her house did for me when I was growing up – and that this pastel floral card helps to make her special day all the more so.

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this card – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post Elegant springtime happy birthday card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.