Hard When You Have to Say Goodbye - Eclipse Card

Recently I had the pleasure of gathering with other council members in our community to say farewell to a friend and neighbor who's moving to another location. While we are happy that she's moving closer to family and old friends, we're certainly going to miss this wonderful woman, whose intelligence, wit and kindness contributed so much to making our complex a great place to live.  I offered to make a farewell card for the group to sign, and I wanted it to be as special as she is.  

Although most would consider the Coming Home and Home Together Dies from Stampin' Up! to be Christmas or winter themed, I knew they would work for other occasions too such as a House Warming or Farewell.  Because I wanted to personalize this card in a really special way, I decided to incorporate my friend's name into the design by making what's called an "Eclipse" card.    

Here's What I Designed:

I love using my Cutter Bee EK Success Alphabet Dies when adding lettering to a card because they are large and bold.  My general rule of thumb is that four alphabet letters from this set will fit comfortably across an A2 card but if your word is five or more letters you need to have a larger card face.  Because I was using five letters I chose a new, all the rage, card style called a "slim line".  The base measures 8 1/2" x 4".  

In my humble opinion, all really good things start with a plan and a template.  Making a template allows me to work with the layout, spacing, backgrounds and colours as well as the placement of sentiments.  

For this card I began with a scrap piece of white card stock that measured 8 1/8 x 3 5/8", and I drew two lines across the length of the card to make it easier to line up both the images and die cuts.  

Next I stamped and fussy cut three of the house images and two of the large trees from the Coming Home set on post it notes.  These cutouts enable me to get the right layout between the two pencil lines.

Once I was happy with the layout I marked the placement with a pencil, removed the post it notes and stamped the permanent images on the marks.

I coloured all the images with the blends so I could get an idea of how the finished card would look.  This also helped me choose a colour for the layer that went between the card base and the designed layer.  I chose Cinnamon Cider one of SU's In Colour series this year.  This layer measures 8 1/4" x 3 6/8".  

Moving on to the background, I put the post it notes in place over the houses and trees and then using a 2" scallop circle I sponged in the clouds with Pool Party ink.  I took the sponging right down between the houses and trees.  Using a Garden Green blend I coloured in the grass and then I stamped the image of the car and the sentiment "Time For a New Adventure" from the Well Said Stamp Set #148796.   

Next I laid out my Alphabet dies, evenly spacing each of the letters. Once they were lined up I tore off a piece of Glad Press and Seal, covering the letters and carefully pressing the air out and wrapping the excess around the card layer.

I've found this to be the one of the best ways to keep my dies from shifting when running them through the Big Shot.  They stay in place well, keep the bits that need to go in the center of the letters and it doesn't take much effort to remove the Press'n Seal when you're done.  

When I was finished with my template and was satisfied, I did it all over again on the actual card.  It was so easy the second time because all the guess work was out of it.  Now I have a template should I decide to make another card in this style, so it was a win, win all around.

The Alphabet letters are placed back in the cut holes mounted on dimensionals.  This gives a really good 3-D effect and depth to the card. 

Although it's difficult to see I added Nuvo drops to the windows  in the car and houses.

I was very pleased with the final card layout and the colouring.  I added a few more details like colouring in the road and adding some smaller trees on the ends.  

For the inside of the card, which I didn't take a picture of before it was signed off on, I added two layers of Whisper White card stock on either side of the card base. Normally I would only add one layer but the additional piece of card stock  provided additional space for signatures.  Instead of just stamping a farewell sentiment for the inside layer of the card I composed a farewell verse and printed this layer off on the computer.  I also stamped a house and some trees on it before adhering it to the card base.   

Here's the matching envelope I made for the card.  Because this  card was presented in person and not being mailed,  I wanted it to look extra special and I stamped three different house and images and some street lamps for this scene.

The sentiment "Wishing You all the best" is from a retired Stampin" Up! set called Blended Seasons.  I thought that was a nice lead in to the card.  

Well folks that's all I have for you today.  I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into how I take a card idea and create a design from scratch.  I'd love to hear how you design your cards - do you case other ideas or do you play with your own ideas.  How about techniques?  Have you ever made an Eclipse card?  

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot 

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator 

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