More Easy Envelope Gatefold Cards

One of the wonderful members of our team, Charlotte, quoted this one day during a meeting:

Creativity has to find us working.

Although the Easy Envelope Gatefold card has a lot of pieces, the recipe for the various cuts makes it pretty easy to put together.  To be honest, I got a little obsessed with this particular card design – as you will see!

Creativity really found me and inspired me – a lot.  I started to play around with some of the other DSP paper packs in my stash.  I always need a gift card – and there are so many occasions that call for one.  A handcrafted card surrounding a gift card also tells your recipient that this wasn’t a quickie stop at the market to buy one!

Here are a few other ideas that I found myself thinking about as I was doing the original Easy Envelope Gate Card starting with this pretty blue one to say “thank you”:

I had so much luck with the Stampin’ Up! You’re a Peach Designer Series Paper for my first card in the peach and orange tones that my next card uses the same paper pack once again.  However, this versatile paper includes a number of images in blue that work beautifully here:

This card includes sentiments from the Pansy Patch stamp set. This card would serve so well for many of the thank yous that we seem to need for people in our lives who help us out.

Well, then it occurred to me that Christmas is an obvious occasion for a gift card. I wouldn’t want to make 50 of these. But the people who are on that gift list would probably love the gift and the message that this card presentation gives. You could mail it in an envelope. But it also occurred to me that you could put the gift card pocket and your message inside and write the recipient’s name on the back if you were presenting it in person.

I couldn’t resist using the Stampin’ Up! Whimsy and Wonder DSP.  Although I like traditional Christmas colors (and I’ll be posting some Christmas cards shortly that will use them), I LOVE the nontraditional colors! And this paper pack is just beautiful:

This paper features a lot of foiling and pastel colors – Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron, Misty Blue.  I decided to stamp the holly images and heat emboss them in silver. I used Stampin’ Blends to color them. The tree is stamped with Mint Macaron with the ornament stamp offset 3 times to provide lots of ornaments in pink, blue, and silver. (Because the Blushing Bride Stampin Blends are no longer available, I used Flirty Flamingo and it worked well enough!)

The sentiments are also from the Stampin’ Up! Whimsical Trees Stamp Set.  If you look closely, you may be able to see that the sentiment on the front is stamped in black.  But all of the silver heat embossing continues the paper’s theme of shiny and bright.

Then the Muses reminded me that we hardly ever see Hanukkah cards.  So many Hanukkah gifts are perfect for a card like this.  So I went to work to create something for this occasion too:

I used Balmy Blue cardstock (12” x 12”) for the base with DSP from the Stampin’ Up! Feels like Frost 6” x 6” DSP for the images as well as the foil pieces.  (BTW – this paper is currently on clearance so it would be a good idea to get some of this asap if you are interested. It is two-sided, as all of the Stampin’ Up! paper is. But this pack has beautiful winter images on one side and all of them have silver foil on the opposite side. I will have some additional cards for you next week that use this same paper. It makes beautiful cards and works well for all of the winter holidays – as well as holiday thank-you notes.)

The images come from Stampin’ Up!  Snowflake Wishes stamped in Balmy Blue with silver embossed overlays.  The medallion is cut using the Stampin’ Up! So Many Snowflakes Dies – but you could easily fussy-cut it as well. (And this is another bundle that offers a lot of creativity with its beautiful images in an excellent range of sizes.)

The Happy Hanukkah sentiment comes from Snowflake Wishes as well – but the warm wishes sentiment is from Stampin’ Up! Poinsettia Petals.  (BTW, Poinsettia Petals is also an excellent bundle and one of my very favorites since it is so versatile! I’ll be presenting several cards using this bundle in some upcoming entries…)

I was very happy with this card. And I know that I will have at least one more Hanukkah card shortly (if not more)!  Those Muses, you know…

This last card has a color scheme that is similar to the original Easy Envelope Gatefold Card.  But I used the Stampin’ Up! Pansy Petals DSP, as well as the Pansy Patch stamp set.

The medallion on this card does not contain a sentiment.  Instead, I made a cluster of pansies and leaves from the DSP.  You can cut the pansies out with the Pansy Dies – or they can be fussy cut.  I used liquid glue to create the bouquet and then glued it on to the medallion with one of the Stampin’ Up! Brushed Metallic Adhesive Backed Dots.

You may notice that I have not included a sentiment inside or on the back.  I’m going to leave this one blank for now, although I will store it with the papers cut out for the inside and the back.  There are so many occasions that might call for a card like this – Mother’s Day, or Easter, or even a bridal shower.  It will be ready to personalize when I decide how I will be using it. (I want to be a good scout – always prepared!)

So … do any of these options inspire you? If so, let’s get you thinking about which one of these cards inspire you…because, then, Creativity will find YOU working!

The supply list follows. I am going to do one list for each card example so that it isn’t confusing – I can easily confuse myself…

Supply list for the first blue thank you gift card:

Supply list for the Whimsy and Wonder Christmas gift card:

Supply list for the Hanukkah Gatefold card:

Supply list for the Pansy Gift Card:

The following are just general supplies that are available through Stampin’ Up!