Hi, There, Papercrafters!
When it comes to CASEing (Copy And Share with Everyone), it’s not just the layout that makes the card. In this CASE, it was more the colors that caught my eye than the layout. But I ended up somewhat CASEing the layout, too. Read on.
The Original Floral Design
I found the card that inspired today’s project on page 72 of the Stampin’ Up! 2022-23 Annual Catalog. It really was the colors used with a solid image that made me think of the bottles in the Bottled Happiness Stamp Set. Unfortunately, the original had flowers that had been punched out of colored cardstock. If I was going to use the basic layout idea, I wasn’t going to be able to use the punch that was bundled with this stamp set. It features only the taller of the two bottles in the stamp set. So I decided not to use this card to CASE this set. But I kept coming back to it. It had grabbed my attention and wasn’t letting go.
Figuring out the Layout
CASEing a project is supposed to make designing a card a lot easier. This time, with that stupid design having ambushed me, it took a lot longer than designing my own card! To get started I first figured out which colors I was going to use for my design. Then I stamped and cut out (no punch or dies to help!) a dozen bottles. This design actually isn’t that hard to cut – lots of straight lines. Then I started to arrange them. That wasn’t too hard. What was hard was trying to get them to look in some kind of intentional order rather than just scattered around. After many tries, I finally thought of scoring lines across their background layer and arranging the bottles so that each “sat” on one of the lines. But the arithmetic to figure out those lines! Another time sink.
Deciding on the Sentiment
OK, a card with a string of bottles in different colors doesn’t exactly evoke most of the sentiments that one finds in stamp sets. Get Well? But they’re not pill bottles. Thinking of You? With bottles? Really? Congratulations? What’s in those bottles anyway?
I finally found what I thought was a sentiment just made for a card like this. Here were these ordinary bottles, but in a colorful, carefully laid-out format. “You make the ordinary extraordinary“, from the Simply Succulents Stamp Set, just fit!
The Envelope, Please!
As with my card in my last article – and in the next, too – I decorated an envelope to go with this card. But this envelope is special, as is the shape of the card. They’re both Slimline in shape. I cut the card to an 8-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ shape out of Thick Basic White Cardstock. The envelope is one of Stampin’ Up!’s own Slimline Envelopes. The shorter bottle was perfect for this thinner envelope. And, even thought I didn’t add anything to the bottles on the card, I think it as a nice touch to add the sprig from the stamp set to the bottle on the envelope. What do you think? I’d love to know!
One More CASE Coming Up
My next card will also use the Bottled Happiness Stamp Set and will have another take on a Catalog CASE. Don’t forget to check in later this week!
Happy Stamping!
