Rustic Card Trio

©Michele Emerson-Roberts  2015

I have never been a “glitzy” person…. no “BLING” for me! I am understated with what I create, what I wear and how I decorate. I needed cards for two friends who are moving into retirement centers and another friend who is getting married. Follow along to see how I created the three cards for them.

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Supplies:

• Any of the Arnold Grummer paper making kits
• A sunny window or traditional oven
• Blender, small strainer, cello sponges and soft towels
• Scraps of ivory & brown paper (think junk mail, etc.)
• Dies:  3 different types of “label dies” to layer
• Spellbinders Grand Calibur™ Machine
• Westcott™ paper trimmer & scissors
• Scor-Pal™ (LOVE the new 1/8^th version!)
• Envelopes to fit cards
• Beacon QuickGrip™ and ZipDry™ adhesive, double sided foam tape or dots
• Verbiage stamps (or computer generate the message)
• ColorBox chalk to correspond with the paper colors
• 1/2” sheer Ivory ribbon, picot edged ribbon
• Short “nubby” twigs, flower centers
• Iron

Instructions

1. Follow the direction for paper making and casting found in any of the Arnold Grummer paper making kits or books to make slurry from the ivory scraps.
2. Create one or more sheets of heavy weight ivory handmade paper. Save the left over slurry.
3. Iron the paper to make it smooth. 
4. Cut, score and fold half of the sheet to make one 4 ¼ x 5 ½” card.
5. Die cut the other half of the paper with the label dies (refer to photo). Remember to always save the scraps.
6. Create brown slurry and make several sheets of heavy weight brown paper. Save the left over slurry.
7. Iron the paper to make it smooth. Cut, score and fold two cards.
8. Die cut some labels from the brown paper in different sizes to layer with the ivory labels.
9. Combine the left over paper slurry (do not over mix it….you want it to be mottled) and create a sheet of paper.
10. Iron it to make it smooth.
11. Cut it to 4” x5 ¼”.
12. Attach it to the front of the ivory card front with ZipDry™ adhesive.
13. Stamp the verbiage onto the smallest label die cut piece.
14. Layer the labels die cuts with foam tape between each layer.
15.  Add the ribbon bows to the fronts of the cards.
16. Attach the flower center or twigs with QuickGrip™ adhesive before tying the bows.

I think my friends will enjoy receiving  the cards as much as I did creating them.