A Special Wedding Card

I've discussed how, as card-makers, some of us are guilty of not sending a lot of cards. My theory (stolen from Jan Tink, because I think she nailed it) is that even if we have a bunch of cards on hand, when we need a card for someone we know it has to be special, which means we have to make it just for them. Then we run out of time and it doesn't get made so it doesn't get sent. The end.

Today I am going to attend the wedding of my son, Alex, and his bride, Jenn. Naturally, I needed to make them a very special card. Very.

Here's what I made:

There's a lot going on here, so I'll inundate you with detail shots. But first: the background. I was working with my usual 4x5.25 piece of card stock, and I scored it in both directions using my Martha Stewart mini score board.

I put a piece of SU Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon across the front for contrast for the hearts:

First, I embossed the Hero Arts Lace Background with clear EP on some SU Very Vanilla card stock, and die-cut a heart for the bride. I also die-cut some extra Very Vanilla hearts and stacked them to give the heart some dimension and heft.

For the groom, I cut a bunch of black hearts for stacking, plus a white one for the shirt. After the white one was stuck on top of the stack, I stuck on a piece of Rich Razzleberry taffeta ribbon for the cummerbund, then I went to work on the top black layer.

For the tux, I marked spots at the top where I wanted the lapels to start, then cut down the center to where the embossed edge was. I scored both sides from my pencil marks down to the end of the cut line, then turned it over to the back and re-scored the lines so they'd fold in the right direction. I used my bone folder to give them a good crease on the front and glued the layer down on top of the stack.

I tied the teeny tiny bow for the tie, punched a hole in the heart layers with my paper piercer, then sewed the bow into place. Then I colored three tiny pearls with a black Sharpie and lined them up in the remaining space. I added one pearl to the neckline for the bride.

I then carefully layered them on top of each other and stuck them down with a combination of dimensional adhesives. I actually used part of a black dimensional adhesive under the black heart.

You can kindof see the lapels are sticking up in the next shot for the sentiment:

For the sentiment, I used SU Rich Razzleberry ink with Versamark so I could emboss it. First you ink the stamp with Versamark, then you ink it with the dye ink, stamp it, then cover it with clear embossing powder. You can emboss with any die ink this way and get a perfect matching color!

I also got a little crazy and did a pocket on the inside, since I wanted to give them some gift cards for their honeymoon. Here is a side view of the card::

I had to sacrifice a whole sheet of Very Vanilla card stock for the base since I needed it longer than 8.5". I cut the base 8 3/4" long and 5 1/2" wide, then scored at 4 1/4 from each long end. This gave me a 1/4" spine to accommodate the thickness of the pocket:

Yes, it's thick, and a little uneven, but that's okay! I did this the hard way: I cut a ton of rectangles, then die-cut a rectangle from each of them to give me u-shaped pieces that are just wide enough to hold a credit card. I glued them together, one at a time, to get the stack. Then I cut another rectangle from the lace-embossed piece I used for the bride's heart and made the top of the pocket:

This is a job for the Silhouette, which I still have and will set up in my new house. I will.

Oh, and if you didn't notice, check out that tux heart:

There is a white layer (actually two, since I messed up), but there is no white showing on the sides. I went over the edge with a black Sharpie. I stopped at the edge of the lapels so the white shirt is still white on the top edges.

This is a one-of-a-kind card, and a labor of love. I really like how it turned out!

So tonight my boy gets hitched to a great gal. I'm so happy for them!

Thanks for stopping by!