Concord & 9th—Sending Smiles Rainbow Card
Hi Crafters!
Long time, no see! My crafty mojo disappeared last week and I was fighting for my life to get it back. So, I’m happy to say that today I have a new blog post for you! A little over a week ago, a family member of mine had an unexpected surgery, so I wanted to make a card to brighten their day and recovery.
The die sets that I used on this card are both from Concord & 9th, and are exclusive to Summer Camp 2022 and a SCT event, but I’m sure that you could find something similar in your stash if you wanted to recreate this! I’ve actually had these products sitting in my ‘to use’ bin since probably August of last year, so I’m happy to have used them on this card.
Since I was making this card for my uncle, I wanted to keep the color palette more neutral, if not a little bit more masculine, so I die cut the arches die (from the Sending Smiles die set) out of Midnight, Peacock, Aqua Sky, Stardust, and Poppy cardstocks from Concord & 9th. I found inspiration for this color palette on Pinterest when I searched for a retro color palette, and I can’t wait to make something else using it (and likely with some of the new colors coming from Concord & 9th in April). Once I had the order of the arches figured out, I started putting together the rest of the card. I decided to build the rainbow and sentiment on an arch using one of the larger Essential Arches from Ellen Hutson. With that decided, I had to think about the background. I knew I wanted some texture to it, so I decided to use the Quilted card front die from Concord & 9th on a 4.25 x 5.5-inch piece of Aqua Sky cardstock. I love how the Aqua Sky panel looks as the background to this card, it ties into the rainbow but also brightens things up. Since I was certain that this scene would be glued onto the arched panel, I die cut three of them to stack them up for some dimension and glued them down. I thought a silver frame around the arched panel would give it a more finished look, so I die cut it out of C9 matte silver cardstock. The Essential Arches dies have this frame built into them, so I didn’t have to cut this out manually!
At this point, I thought this card was just going to be the rainbow arches and the coordinating ‘sending smiles’ greeting, but I pulled the Aqua Sky Cabin die from Summer Camp out of my stash. This die set includes a sentiment, some small heart dies, a cloud, and dies to make a sun (a sun ray, and dies to give the sun a face). I decided to just use the circle, sun ray, and cloud dies to add some extra details to this scene. I die cut two clouds out of plain white cardstock, then the sun ray and circle die out of Buttercup cardstock. I imagined this scene having a sun peeking out behind the rainbow and a pillow of clouds beneath it. I lined up all my elements to figure out the placement on my white arched panel and glued the sun and the rainbow down. When it came to the clouds, since I only had one die, I decided to stagger them and to glue them so that they were opposites of each other so that they wouldn’t look the same, and this way I could have both clouds on the card without them overlapping. The way I glued down the sun and clouds has the parts hanging over the white arched panel unsecured because I didn’t want to mess with foam squares, and because I like the floating look that comes from leaving them unattached. And upon time of writing this blog, I realized I never trimmed off the edges of the clouds that are hanging over the card front, which is one option, but I might leave them as is and send the card in a slightly larger envelope.
To finish the card off, I got to work on the sentiment. I love the style of this greeting (it’s very similar to the Just Sayings die set), and after going through a lot of color and shadow options, I decided to die cut it out of the same matte silver cardstock as the frame around the arched piece. This ties the two elements together, and it allows the greeting to have a bit of a pop to it. I stacked up one white cardstock layer underneath it to add some stability and dimension and glued it across the rainbow. I added the tittle to the ‘i’ (which I almost forgot to do) and called this card done!
I hope you liked this card! I’m so happy with how it turned out, and happier that I found my crafty mojo again. Here’s to hoping it sticks around (🤞🏻) and that I’ll catch you next time with more inspiration!
Are you signed up for Concord & 9th’s In The Classroom: Color Edition?! If so, I’ll be crafting along with you on 3/18!
