It’s summertime!! Finally! I long for summers on Long Island, visiting Fire Island and the more local area beaches, seeing my friends, summer produce, walking around town, or simply hanging out at Coco’s on the Sound (where my husband and I celebrated our wedding with our New York friends and family). Covid’s been a bummer (nothing new I’m telling you here) - but I miss wearing flip flops in the sand, going to the local Birkenstock store in Huntington, and just hanging by the pool. It’s been over two years since we have been home to visit - pre-covid we averaged at least every other month!
Well, the good news! Summer is here and we are finally going for a visit to the island. To celebrate, I wanted to make a happy summer card - something easy and enjoyable for all - even my non-NYers! I loved working with our Chartreuse cardstock last time, so much that I wanted to incorporate it into my MANY colors for this project.
Supplies:
- Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers
- 8.5” x 11” Sweet Tooth White Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Wild Cherry Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Hot Pink Colorplan 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Arancio Sirio Color 80lb
- 8.5” x 11” Rust Colorplan 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Hot Fudge Brown Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Chartreuse Colorplan 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Lemon Drop Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Banana Split Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Sour Apple Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Gumdrop Green Pop-Tone 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Forest Green Colorplan 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Marrs Green Colorplan 100lb
- 8.5” x 11” Sno Cone Pop-Tone 100lb
- Cricut Electronic Cutting Machine with Access Plan to Design Space
- Cricut Design File for Pop-up Card
- Scoring Wheel and Gold Metallic Pen (Cricut)
- Scissors
- Bone Folder & Scoring Board
- Paper Trimmer
- Liquid Adhesive
- Scor-Tape (Any Size)
To get started, I had to get my paper organized. The colors of papers used for each portion of the card are as follows - I tried to make this obvious in the Design Space file:
- Lime (Sweet Tooth White, Sour Apple, Gumdrop Green)
- Lemon (Sweet Tooth White, Banana Split, Lemon Drop)
- Pineapple (Banana Split, Chartreuse, Forest Green)
- Orange (Rust, Arancio)
- Watermelon (Hot Pink, Hot Fudge, Forest Green)
- Strawberry (Wild Cherry, Forest Green)
- Outer Card Base (Sno Cone)
- Inner Card Base (Marrs Green)
I modified three existing Cricut design files (#M274C4C7, #M2AAB3EFD, #MC85BE59) and added Blueberry Pancake Font). My final design file can be found here. To edit the files, I simply recreated the lime and lemon to make it easier to assemble, and added a sentiment of “SUMMER” to the inside of the card. I added “HAVE A HAPPY” to the front of the card base, all using a Silver Metallic Cricut Marker.
Next, I cut all pieces using my Cricut, Metallic Silver Pen, and Scoring Tool. I started by first assembling the pineapple, followed by the orange, strawberry, watermelon combo using the Rust cardstock on the bottom, and Arancio on the top. I then added the assembled pineapple and added the watermelon and the rind. I used liquid adhesive only due to the dimension of the card. I was afraid that any additional foam may not allow the card to close properly.
My next step was to assemble the lemons and limes. I would strongly recommend cutting on a setting using multiple passes. Each machine and paper is different, so you may need to experiment. You can find our suggested cut settings here.
On the inside panel of the Marrs cardstock card, I used my bone folder to reinforce the folds and ensure the fruit portion of the card popped forward. I then used liquid adhesive to attach the fruit to the panel, being VERY careful not to get any glue on the pop up mechanisms.
Next, on the back side of the Marrs card panel, I applied scor-tape to ensure a strong adhesive for attaching to the card base. I did this on both sides of the Marrs panel, AVOIDING all areas with pop-ups and fruit. I used my bone folder to fold the Sno Cone Card Base with the “Have a Happy” sentiment on the outside.
Here is a view of the Marrs Panel before I begin adhering it to the card base. To adhere to the card base I removed ONE SIDE only of the scor-tape, and added a little liquid adhesive where scor-tape was too big. I then aligned the center of the Marrs colored panel, with the inside center of the card base, and closed the card base. I used my bone folder to ensure it was strongly adhered.
I repeated the same logic for the bottom half of the card. I removed the scor–tape backing, added some liquid adhesive, then aligned the center of the panel and the card base. I closed the card base and adhered with a bone folder. Next, I added a lemon to the inside of the Marrs panel. For a finishing touch, I cut my lime in half using my paper trimmer and placed the halves on the front of my card.
Here is the finished card!
Tips and Tricks:
1.Use liquid adhesive on the fruits. Any other dimension may cause the card to not close!
2.Scor-tape is the best to hold on the inside panel to the outside panel. Use liquid adhesive sparingly and safely to not get it caught on the pop-up mechanism.
3.Consider making the lime on the outside of the card a shaker! You could put clay limes in it!
Show us your summer projects! We'd love to see your creations! Show us your creations on Facebook or Instagram, and tag them with #cardstockwarehouse.
Happy Crafting! Traci Selig
IG: @tracicrafty
Blog: Traci Crafty