There’s just something about the return of my own birthday month, however, that makes me want to churn out twelve months worth of b-day cards for friends, relatives, neighbours, complete strangers – you name it! – in the span of just a few weeks.

Does that actually happen? No, not so far, but the spirit is there all the same!

Earlier this month my own birthday transpired on July 10^th. However, even with the candles having been blown out for another year, I’m still in a celebratory + birthday card making frame of mind.

This is bolstered all the more by the fact that less than a month after my birthday, Tony’s returns in early August (we’re both summer babies, which is such a fun point to share in common).

That I’m often in full-on birthday card making mode during the summer is both enjoyable unto itself and wonderfully pragmatic at the same time.

Several friends and family members have fall time birthdays (including three in the middle of October alone), so being able to create some of those cards in advance is really handy.

Especially since I’m often enmeshed in a glorious haze of fall, Thanksgiving (Canadian and US alike), Halloween, and Pagan autumn sabbat paper crafting during fall time itself.

To say nothing of Yule, Christmas, and New Year’s cards as well!

This particular greeting will be zipping off to an immensely dear long-time friend of mine in the States, whose birthday falls in the final weeks of the year.

We both adore animals, especially cute woodland creatures, so I knew that a handmade card starring a darling bunny surrounded by plenty of beautiful foliage and toadstools – not to mention the whimsical little teacup and blueberries – would be a lovely fit for her own special day.

An adorable woodland themed Happy Birthday card with lots of layers and fussy cutting

This birthday card looks like it might be a bit complex or require a slew of products. In reality though, it is relatively straightforward and calls for just a handful of different items.

Fussy cutting is the MVP when it coms to making this lovely birthday card.

Cue up a good movie, YouTube video, podcast, or music playlist, grab a pair of comfortable fine-tipped scissors (or craft knife and suitable cutting surface, such as a self-healing mat) and settle in for a fussy cutting session.

I really enjoy fussy cutting and find it is both relaxing and a marvelous way to stretch one’s paper crafting supply stash.

Sure, you can often purchase various types of premade die cut paper and chipboard pieces, and I certainly enjoy working with those types of products, too.

However, fussy cutting opens up an even broader range of images that we can use in the same types of ways as these premade products.

On top of the versatility of fussy cutting, there is often a fair bit of cost saving involved as well, as most patterned paper sheets cost less than premade die cuts.

And, of course, sometimes it is oodles of fun to mix premade die cuts and fussy cut images together.

In the case of this sweet woodland rabbit themed birthday card, I opted solely for fussy cut shapes – including a fussy cut panel for the central image.

For the sentiment, I stamped a cute little “Happy Birthday” greeting in which the letter A is replaced by a heart in both words onto a fussy cut banner piece from P13’s Forest Tea Party 07 sheet of paper.

This same piece of paper is where all of the fussy cut pieces, save for the central bunny image, hailed from as well.

The darling little rabbit image is from the same P13 Forest Tea Party line, hailing specifically from the Forest Tea Party 06 sheet of paper.

Beyond the fussy cutting, this card is a speedy breeze to put together.

A few layers of a cardstock and printed paper (some with inked edges), a couple of die cut decorative edge rectangle shapes, two earthy hued wood veneer butterflies, and a barely-visible-but-definitely-there piece of light blue seam binding, as well as a length of cream eyelet trim are all it takes to put this enchanting birthday greeting together.

Products used to make this layered and fussy cut woodland critter birthday card

-Medium or dark brown cardstock

-Navy or midnight blue cardstock

-Rose gold metallic cardstock – Rose Gold Cardstock from Recollections

-Foliage, mushroom, and banner print paper – Forest Tea Party 07 from P13

-Bunny image print paper – Forest Tea Party 06 from P13

-Elegant blue and light brown print paper – Vintage Summer Basics 1915 from Maja Design

-Two different decorative edge rectangular shaped dies

-Dark brown ink – Dewdrop Rich Cocoa Ink from Memento

-Happy birthday sentiment stamp

-Brown wood veneer filigree style butterflies – Wooden Butterflies from Recollections

-Light blue seam binding

-Cream (or ivory or white) cotton eyelet trim

-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)

How to make a cute woodland themed birthday card

To make this sweet woodland bunny birthday card, begin by making a card base from brown cardstock.

Cut a piece of rose gold metallic cardstock (you could use aged gold or copper coloured metallic cardstock here instead, and I suspect that classic white or cream vellum would look terrific as well) slightly smaller than the size of your card base. Attach to card base.

Cut a piece of navy blue cardstock ever-so-slightly smaller than the piece of rose gold cardstock. Attach to rose gold cardstock.

Follow this up by cutting a piece of Vintage Summer Basics 1915 blue and brown print paper from Maja Design slightly smaller than the navy blue cardstock. Ink the edges of this paper layer with dark brown ink, then attach to the navy blue cardstock.

Adhere a length of light blue seam binding or ribbon horizontally across your card front, a touch below the middle point of the card.

Die cut two different elegant/decorative edge rectangles. One from navy blue cardstock, the other from the same brown cardstock that you used for the card base here.

Layer and arrange in a similar fashion to those shown here. Optionally popping the upper layer of die cut cardstock up with foam doats or a similar raised adhesive for an added sense of dimension.

Cut a piece of cream eyelet trim and adhere it so it overlaps with part of the bottom of the navy blue die cut cardstock.

Fussy cut the central bunny (with teacup and blueberries) image from the P13 Forest Tea Party 06 paper. Attach to the die cut brown cardstock central panel.

Next, from the same sheet of P13 paper (Forest Tea Party 06) fussy cut an assortment of different leaf and toadstool shapes.

Arrange and adhere as desired around the central panel of the card.

Fussy cut a scrolling banner shape from the same P13 (Forest Tea Party 06) paper.

Using the same brown ink that inked the edges of the Maja Design paper with, stamp a happy birthday sentiment onto the banner (if you have one, I suggest using a stamping platform for this so as to help ensure precise placement of the sentiment on this fussy cut shape).

Adhere the “Happy Birthday” banner in the center of the cream eyelet trim layer with pop dots or another dimensional adhesive.

For the final touch on this cute woodland themed birthday card, tuck two wood veneer butterflies between some of the fussy cut leaves, as shown.

And there you have it! A card that looks complicated, but really isn’t, and which is sure to delight the lucky recipient that you send or present it in person to is now all ready to go.

Let the seasons be your paper crafting muse

This card was created with a friend’s birthday in mind, but you could easily swap out the sentiment or forgo including one all together.

Instead of making this into a birthday card, why not turn it into a Mother’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, thinking of you, missing you “just because”, get well, or congratulations card?

It would also make for a fantastic seasonal greeting card, be it from any point (in the Western Hemisphere) between spring and mid-autumn.

And for my fellow witches and Pagans, I think this design would be fantastic as a Beltane, Litha, Lammas, or Mabon greeting. And, given the rabbit imagery, it would not be out of place for Imbolc or Ostara either.

This card embodies a good deal of my personal style, not only in terms of card making, but in regard to my overall paasion for Mother Nature.

I am a nature/green witch through and through, and spend as much time as possible outdoors the whole year through.

I have long joked that I’m one tent purchase away from simply moving into the backyard during all but the coldest months.

As much as both Annie (our dog) and I would surely enjoy that, I haven’t quite taken my passion for being outside to that extreme yet. Especially since it would a bit tricky to cram a craft room’s worth of paper crafting supplies into a small tent…

I draw a great deal of inspiration from nature – just as many others around the world have done since time immemorial – and apply that inspiration to countless areas of my life. Paper crafting 100% included.

This summer (or winter, if you are south of the equator), I encourage you to look at nature through the lens of inspiration. Take photos or make written notes of natural elements or scenes that speak to you, detailing them for potential future inspiration in some of your own wonderful crafting projects.

No other season is quite as alive or rich with natural abundance as summer. From flittering dragonflies to sprawling seas of wildflowers, sun-kissed beaches to gorgeous green leaves rustling in warm breezes, feel, connect with, and translate nature into your crafting.

Then rinse and repeat, so to speak, with each of the other seasons – as well as what I like to call the “micro seasons”. These are the brief periods of, on average, 1- 3 weeks, as one season gently melds into the next.

The sights and colour palette of summer into fall are represented on this card, making it especially well suited for a late summer or autumn time birthday like that of my cherished friend.

Do you delight in letting nature influence your paper crafting as well? What are your favourite seasons to draw creative inspiration from?

The post Adorable Woodland Themed Happy Birthday Card with Lots of Layers and Fussy Cutting appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

As this period often transpires in January, a little part of me had thought that perhaps we’d be spared the coldest of snaps this time around.

Oh, silly, perpetually optimistic me!

To no one’s surprise, that was not to be the case. An arctic cold front blew into town in early February and remained in place until a touch after Valentine’s Day.

The temps here are still well below freezing, snow lays abundantly as far as the eye can see, and while spring may be less than a month away on paper, you’d never know it by the look of things around these parts.

That is honestly okay with me. I’ve fallen deeper in love with winter this time around, finding greater soothing comfort and serenity in its ingrained hush and the noise-cancelling properties of abundant snow than ever before.

Here in Canada, I’m far from alone in still experiencing icy cold weather. Many parts of the country will continue to do so well into late March, April, or even May (once, when I was living in Calgary, Alberta, snow even fell in June!).

Thus, as I owe a dear online friend + pen pal some snail mail correspondence, I recently created this sweet, wonderfully wintry greeting to zip her way.

Why not, I figure, celebrate the current season in paper crafting form while it’s still here?

My friend resides in what is, on average, an even colder and snowier part of the country, so I hope that she’ll enjoy my fun, frosty take on a season that anyone living on Canadian soil is intimately acquainted with.

While this card looks – and is in some ways – relatively straightforward, there are (quite literally) some delightful things going on behind the scenes.

At first, I had thought that this design would be a shaker card. How charming, I reckoned, would it be to put the fox – already in a snow-filled mason jar – inside of an actual shaker element?

I tried various configurations, shapes, die cuts, apertures, shaker materials, and yet failed to fall in love with any of them.

Instead, I nixed the shaker card approach and instead decided to layer this wintertime card from the back of the design, working my way forward, instead.

Mirroring the design of the falling snow in the fox image, I took some basic white acrylic craft paint and painted the top of the brown cardstock card base to resemble falling snow. This was then layered with classic white vellum to soften the effect and help to ensure that the fox image remained the star of the show.

This design could very easily work for a Yule, Christmas, New Year’s, winter birthday, or thinking of you card, amongst other possible uses.

In my case, it is a wintertime cheer card winging its way a few provinces over to let my friend know that she’s in my thoughts and wished a safe, lovely remainder of the season.

How to make a wintertime snowflake and woodland fox card

As of late, I have received requests from multiple readers to share the steps involved with my projects in even more of an instructional manner. I am delighted to do just that and sincerely appreciate these requests.

Beginning with the instructions provided for this card making project, I will be guiding you through the creative process that I utilized in even greater step-by-step detail. This way, those who wish to create similar cards or learn more about the techniques I’ve employed can do just that.

Start with a base of either light brown or classic kraft cardstock. If you don’t have either of those, you could use medium brown, tawny brown, taupe, or even dark pine or forest green cardstock instead.

Take a relatively fine pointed paint brush and some white acrylic craft paint (a light layer or white gesso could be used here instead, if so desired), and proceed to paint a solid layer of white across the top of the card base.

Follow this step by creating small circles (to resemble falling snowflakes) about 1/3^rd of the way down the card base. Tapper off the volume of the snowflakes the lower down you go. Allow the paint to dry before proceeding to layer the rest of the card design.

Cut a piece of white vellum just a touch smaller than the size of your card base and layer it over the painted brown cardstock card base. As most of the vellum with be covered, you don’t have to worry too much about hiding the glue, tape runner adhesive, glue dots, etc that you use to attach the two layers.

Next, take a piece of tone-on-tone green print paper and use a swooping inlaid design die to die cut the same design from the top and bottom of this piece of paper. Adhere the green paper to the velum.

If you don’t have a similar die, you could use a border punch, ensuring you don’t cut right to the edges of the paper, so that the green piece of paper remains intact.

Lightly ink all of the edges of the green print paper with medium or dark brown ink (this step is optional, but it does add a lovely additional hit of visual interest to the finished card design).

Using a nested stitched edge rectangular die set, die cut a piece of light brown (or kraft) cardstock and a smaller rectangle shape from metallic red cardstock.

Take a good sized ornate shaped panel die (or suitable edger die) and die cut a piece of white cardstock.

Layer the brown rectangle on top of the green paper followed by the elegant white die cut cardstock. Top these two layers with the red metallic rectangle, a small piece of brown handmade (be it homemade or store-bought) brown paper, and the focal fox image cut apart paper piece.

Before adhering the fox image, back it onto a piece of white cardstock, leaving the tiniest whisper of a border of white cardstock visible on all sides.

Place a sticker that says “joy” (or you could stamp, stamp and emboss, use a premade die cut, etc with the sentiment of your choosing instead) right below the focal image in the center of the card design.

For the final step to this handmade winter card design, scatter a few clear acetate and (smaller) clear plastic snowflakes around the card. Layer some of them on top of each other, if so desired.

The two clear acetate snowflakes here were gifted to me as part of some happy mail a few years ago. I would have loved to have placed three on this design, but alas, all I had was two of them. As such, I spaced them out and used a flurry of smaller clear plastic snowflakes to help create the look of even more falling snow.

In hindsight – and as a handy tip to anyone wishing to create a similar card – I could have die cut some snowflakes from clear acetate and a snowflake die to give me whatever number of snowflakes I desired. Craft and learn!

No worries though. These premade beauties worked great and add a delightful hit of wintertime loveliness with next to no weight or bulk (perfect since this card is being mailed in an envelope, not a parcel).

Decorate, embellish, and/or stamp the interior of the card however you desire, pen your greeting, and voila, your adorable wintertime snowflake and woodland fox card is ready to go.

If you have any questions about the design process that I didn’t address here, please don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below.

Products used to make this cute winter greeting card

-Light brown or kraft cardstock

-White cardstock

-Red metallic cardstock

-White vellum

-Dark brown handmade paper (optional; you could use a piece of brown cardstock, paper, wide ribbon, burlap, or cork here instead)

-Green tone-on-tone print paper – Timeless Macornerie Paper from Blue Fern Studios

-Fox cut apart image – Winter Wishes Winter Meadow Paper from Photo Play

-Set of nested stitched edge rectangle shaped dies (plain rectangle dies could just as easily be used here instead)

-Curved flourish inset design die

-Ornate panel shape die

-“Joy” sentiment word sticker – Winter Meadow Elements Stickers from Photo Play

-Clear acetate snowflakes

-Clear plastic snowflake embellishments – Crafter’s Square Snowflakes from Dollar Tree (Canada)

-Dark brown ink pad – Dewdrop Rich Cocoa Ink from Memento

-White acrylic craft paint

-Glue gun and glue sticks (optional but handy for attaching the snowflake embellishments)

-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)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful and since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

And let us paper crafters use these chilly days in which we are often at home (especially as the pandemic carries on into 2021) to enjoy plenty of time creating all manner of handmade projects.

Of course, winter isn’t out in full force everywhere still. North of the equator, depending on your location, it might be as good as over at this point.

And for those in the Southern Hemisphere, fall, glorious fall, will soon be swinging into high gear.

No matter the temps or season though, I hope that this month is able to deliver some relaxing and very enjoyable time to create your way.

I’ll soon be turning my thoughts to some springtime projects, as well as those for upcoming family birthdays, Mother’s Day (which takes place in May here in Canada), and – far off as the dog days of summer seem when the snow in our backyard is still well above my knees – even Canada Day at the start of July.

All the while, creating plenty of fa-boo-lously fun October 31^st themed projects to help spread the good word about the exciting #MakeHalloween365 hashtag that I launched last week.

As the shortest month of the year starts to wind down, I hope that you have a wonderful tail end of February. May it lead to a positive, abundantly blessed, and very happy March for all of us.

The post Cute Wintertime Snowflake and Woodland Fox Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

The third Monday in May turns the weekend it immediately follows into a long one. Historically, this has been the point in the year when many Canadians shake off the last vestiges of winter, look beyond the heavy rains of spring, and jump feet first into summer.

Gazing ahead to that point, back in January, I created this cheerful summertime perfect greeting for a loved one. Tucking it aside until spring was well underway and the Victoria Day long weekend loomed into view once more.

In light of the profoundly devastating and far-reaching Corvid-19 pandemic and the need for self-isolation as a vital defence against this devastating global crisis, the camping-related part of the sentiment on this card may not be possible at present.

However, the general message continues to ring true and when coupled with the tranquil scene of woodland deer surrounded by throngs of lofty evergreen trees, this card is still wonderfully at home during the warmer months of 2020.

And speaking of being home, one can always go camping indoors if they so desire! All the s’mores with none of the mosquitoes, yes, pretty please!

Relax and unwind stamped woodland scene card

The idea for the design of this card came to me as I looked upon the lovely woodland deer scene stamp that is at the heart of this handmade greeting.

I adore how the lofty trees in that image stretch up towards the starry heavens and wanted to extend the forest that I imagine these darling deer are in beyond the stamped image itself.

As I wasn’t sure if I’d be mailing or delivering this card in person, I didn’t go wild on the degree of bulk and thickness of the layers here, but did still include multiple layers (some of which are elevated via foam pop dots).

I played around with adding a third panel to the right-hand-side, but couldn’t hit on one that I liked or felt balanced well with the other components here, so in the end, opted to go with just the central panel and the sentiment cut-apart panel on the left-hand side of this summertime card.

Where both myself and the recipient of this card live (BC’s gorgeous Okanagan Valley), we have a lot of stunning natural settings, including many woodland areas. Deer are extremely common throughout the area, so this setting is one that is familiar to both of us (and many others around these parts).

By the same token, I think it is a fairly universal scene as well. Even if one doesn’t live around deer filled forests, the imagery itself is familiar and appealing, with just a hint of fairytale wonderment to it.

While I created this stamped forest scene card for the warmer months, you could easily take this same kind of stamped image and utilize it for a wide range of events (such as Father’s Day, birthdays, thinking of you cards, retirement cards, Canada Day, etc), as well as for each of the seasons.

Paler shades of brown, mint or sage green, pine and maybe a little pink, peach or purple would make this an awesome design for spring. Why not lean heavily on shades of rust, mustard, burgundy and teal or warm brown for fall?

And who wouldn’t swoon if they received this card done up in greys, whites, silvers and the palest of icy blues (perhaps with some glitter or metallic cardstock swirled into the mix for good measure) come the chilly day of winter?

Putting this stamped woodland scene summer card together

To create this serene stamped woodland scene card, I began with a base of brown cardstock. The base is scarcely seen, so you could use other colours – from kraft to white to navy blue – here instead, if so desired.

Next, before moving onto the rest of the layers and card elements, I created my central stamped panel by blending various shades of dark blue, golden yellow, earthy green, and black Ranger Distress Oxide Ink together on white cardstock.

Once I was happy with how my blended ink background turned out (please feel free to let me know in the comments below if you’d be interested in seeing a tutorial of how I create ink blended nighttime sky backgrounds like this), I flicked some water droplets onto the sky portion (but not the rest of the inked panel) using a clean paintbrush and a small amount of water to help give the illusion of a starry sky at dusk.

To further add to the star factor of the sky, using the same paintbrush, I gently flicked some slightly watered-down yellow acrylic paint randomly across the sky portion of my ink blended night sky panel.

Once the ink blended background was dry, I placed it in my stamp positioning tool and, using India Black Ink from Hero Arts (a wonderful dark black dye ink that is great for many different stamping purposes), stamped the woodland deer scene a few times until the image had laid down fully and I was satisfied with the intensity of the black ink.

Next, I die cut a navy frame for my stamped image panel using a squared corned rectangular frame die. I didn’t have a die of the same shape that was a size bigger, so for my next layer (of sage green and gold plaid print paper), I used a ruler to draw similarly shaped corners, cutting them to shape and size with a pair of scissors.

I layered a piece of the same sage and gold plaid print paper onto my main card panel, followed by a piece of brown woodgrain print paper on the righthand side of the card.

This was topped with a central panel of grey-blue cardstock (best scene below the crochet trim at the bottom of the card), onto which I put my woodland deer stamped image panel.

I then added the olive green tulle rose trim and cream crochet trim to the bottom of the card, along with some of the same crochet trim behind the top of the framed panel of the central stamped design.

After that, I die cut a label shaped piece to put behind my (central) sentiment sticker. I ran two lengths of teal coloured rustic twine through the holes on each end of the label and placed that finished piece on top of the olive green tulle trim.

Next, I selected the “Eat, Sleep, Camp, Repeat” die cut sentiment, cut it out, lightly distressed the edges, and backed it with a layer of grey cardstock followed by a layer of vellum. I attached this panel at an angle on the left-hand side of my card and then set about die cutting a cute little forest of trees.

I die cut trees using three different sized tree dies and a mix of navy blue cardstock, green-on-green patterned paper, and classic white vellum.

To add visual interest, I used both the negative and the positives of the trees that I die cut, resulting in a forest comprised of both solid and outline tree shapes.

Once I’d arranged all of my trees and adhered them in place, I stepped back and assessed how I thought the card looked. I loved it and could have left it as it was. However, I felt that it needed one more little touch to help bring the whole design together.

A few minutes of embellishment searching led me to a fab sheet of puffy black star stickers from Bella Blvd.

These stickers added extra pizzazz and dimension (while also extending the star element of the stamped image beyond that panel, much as the die cut trees did for the tree portion of it), without stealing the show from any of the other existing card design elements.

And voila, my card was complete! This design might look a bit complex, but rest assured that it really isn’t.

It does take some time due to the Distress Oxide Ink blending, stamping, and decent amount of die cutting involved, but nothing about this card is inherently tricky and I found building a forest of die cut trees to be awesomely enjoyable (I can easily see myself doing again in the future on different projects).

Products to help you recreate this summertime stamped forest scene card

-Navy blue, brown, grey, and grey-blue coloured cardstock

-Stamping appropriate white cardstock or sturdy white watercolour paper

-Brown woodgrain print paper – Knock on Wood Armoire paper from Lawn Fawn

-Sage green and gold plaid print paper – Fall Forest Mat Stack 6×6 inch paper pad from DCWV

-Green-on-green print paper (or a light to medium green solid coloured paper or cardstock)

-Vellum – Premium Cardstock Vellum from Core’dinations

-Square corned frame shaped die

-Tag/label die with holes at each end of the shape (or use a hole punch to create the holes)

-1 to 3 different sizes of evergreen tree (or tree species of your choice) shaped dies

-Camping sentiment paper – Cabin Fever from Simple Stories

-Sentiment sticker – Lakeside Element Stickers from Photo Play

-Black puffy star stickers – Oreo Black Puffy Star Stickers from Bella Blvd

-Woodland deer scene stamp

-Ranger Distress Oxide Ink in Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Forest Moss, Fossilized Amber, and Mustard Seed

-Black ink pad – India Black Ink from Hero Arts

-Yellow acrylic paint – Folk Art Acrylic Paint in Lemon Custard

-Olive green tulle rose trim – Spring 2011 floral ribbon trim from Webster’s Pages

-Cream crochet trim – Lost & Found Christmas Trims from My Mind’s Eye

-Teal twine – similar style of turquoise jute twine

-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)

Card making tips and ideas from this project

-Utilize the outline pieces from your die cut shapes, when applicable, as I did here for the trees.

-When working with multiple and/or layered die cuts, introduce vellum or another standout paper (glitter, mirror, metallic, sequin covered, textured, burlap, corrugated, etc) into the mix for added visual interest and to help the various die cut elements pop all the more.

–Don’t be afraid to let a stamped scene be one part of a larger card front, not “just” the whole of it. While stamped scenes can make for awesome card fronts unto themselves, no two ways about it, they can also look terrific as one element of a broader design. Mix things up, have fun, and remember that if you really don’t like how something looks, you can always chalk that try up to practice and have a second go.

-Combine elements that are traditionally seen as masculine and feminine together for breathtaking results. I wouldn’t bat an eye about giving this card to the manliest man I know, but by the same token, there isn’t a woman in my life that I wouldn’t be delighted to present it to as well.

Here, olive green tulle rose trim and crochet trim are amongst the more feminine style elements, but the card design as a whole isn’t overtly feminine, thanks to the colour palette, sage green and gold plaid paper, and universally enjoyed woodland-themed elements at play here.

-No puffy star stickers on hand? No worries! Die cut, punched, fussy cut, or even freehand cut stars, as well as other styles and colours of star shaped stickers would all work fabulously here as well.

If you weren’t feeling stars or didn’t have any of those items available, you could easily forego the stars altogether or swap in a different shape such as dragonflies, bats (if keeping with the nighttime forest theme), feathers, branches, or small leaves instead.

-If you don’t have teal or blue rustic twine to run through the die cut label piece, natural twine (jute), butcher’s twine, or a thin width of ribbon would all work great here as well.

–When creating an ink blended background, be sure to take your time and to thoroughly buff each colour so as to end up with a seamless blend between ink shades.

-A stamped scene image like the woodland deer one here often covers a decent surface area and may not stamp entirely evenly the first time. As such, to avoid misalignment when restamping in the same spot, I highly recommend using a stamp positioning tool such as a Misti or the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform.

Summertime needs more handmade cards!

Compared to some of the other seasons, summertime in many parts of the world isn’t exactly overflowing with major holidays. Various countries, including the US and Canada, have their nation’s birthdays and perhaps another long weekend or two, but for many of us, that’s about it.

For my fellow witches and Pagans who observe these dates, there is also Litha (the Summer Solstice) and Lammas (at the start of August; it is the first of the three fall harvest sabbats), which are welcome and highly meaningful events that help to up the festivity factor of summertime.

Again though, not a ton of holidays during the summer months, which is all the more reason why I love to come up with fun, creative sunny season makes to send to my friends and relatives around the world.

One certainly doesn’t need to have a specific holiday in mind to make a card.

“Happy summer”, “Happy Sunshine Season”, “Just Because”, “Summer Makes Me Think of You”, “Remember When”, “Time to Relax”, and “Summer Lovin’” are just some of the many different ideas you could use as the sentiments or jumping-off points for your summertime cards.

This is the season for punchy, upbeat hues, beach and pool, forest and camping, garden and flower, picnic and barbeque, sports and outdoor games, ice cream and ice coffee, and RV and road trip themed paper crafting products, to name but a few!

Let your imagination go wild, have a blast, and send some cheerful greetings out this year (or save them for future years, if mailing it not currently safe in your area) to let your loved ones know that you’re thinking of them during the roasty-toasty days of summer.

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 Relax and Unwind Stamped Forest Scene Summertime Card appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.