This designer paper is a star on its own and I have to say this card, New Horizons Slimline Thinking of You Card, was probably the simplest, yet beautiful card I have ever made! This particular sheet of paper may be the prettiest in the package although you could argue that for almost any sheet. This card came about because looking at this particular 6″ x 6″ paper I hated to cut it smaller to make a regular card so I got the idea to make a slimline card, with no margins, so I could just cut the square paper in half and keep the pretty design of the paper intact.
I used the Basic White Thick Cardstock to make the base for this card since it is a little heavier. The designer paper is the New Horizons 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper in the New Horizons Suite Collection in the Spring Mini Catalog on pages 42-43. You might even overlook this Suite if the paper patterns don’t appeal to you at first glance but they are WOW papers! The card base is cut at 6″ x 6″ and scored at 3″ to make the slimline card. Rather than have a little white margin around the designer paper, I didn’t want to waste even a fraction of an inch of the designer paper so I cut it at 3″ x 6″ to adhere directly on the full card front. It’s best to use the Multipurpose Liquid Glue to give yourself some “wiggle room” before it dries to get the designer paper perfectly aligned on the card base.
I chose the “Thinking of You” greeting in the On the Horizon Stamp Set. I almost stamped it directly on the designer paper on the card in a lighter space but I decided it might not show up as well so I stamped it on a strip of Basic White in Evening Evergreen ink. It was then die cut with the small, narrow Stitched Rectangle die. The photo you see at the top of this blog post is the plain, unembellished card. I felt that it didn’t really need anything else. It took just a couple minutes to make, I loved it and felt it was a beautiful card yet so simple and quick to make.
But then I thought, this card could be “stepped up” a little bit if people wanted to do that. It’s hard to resist not adding some embellishments to any card we make because we have so many supplies and ideas! I just added a few things to my original card, barely perceptible actually in all the design of the paper. But they are there to enjoy and I think it works.
Here is my stepped-up card with a few embellishments. You can see the very small bow on the greeting tied with some Linen Thread (or maybe it is some thicker twine). It is adhered with a Mini Glue Dot.
Next, I added the amazing Pebbles Enamel Shapes. These are to die for! If you look closely you can see a light gray one just at the bottom edge of the light green, a darker gray just above the flowers, and a Cinnamon Cider colored one above the flowers a little to the right.
I also thought a couple of Brushed Brass Butterflies should be flying around the flowers. These are great embellishments because they are lightweight and flat, perfect for mailing! You can see a larger one above the flowers on the left and a smaller one about in the middle.
Even though the original card is perfectly fine as is, if you want to add embellishments you can without taking away from the beautiful New Horizons Designer Series Paper. The pebbles and butterflies are very subtle embellishments if you want to use those. As I write this, this designer paper is “Low Inventory” so if you want some, I would hurry and order it! If you already own it, I would hurry and get it out and make some cards like this New Horizons Slimline Thinking of You Card.
This particular card starts with a 6″ x 6″ piece of cardstock, then folded in half, so the finished size, closed, is 3″ x 6″. It fits nicely in a #6 3/4 envelope, but I have seen larger sizes of cards too. Stampin’ Up! sells Slimline Envelopes link to stampinup.com that are 3 7/8″ x 8 7/8″. I saw that someone starts with a 7″ x 8 1/2″ piece of cardstock for the card base, then folds it in half on the 7″ side so the closed card would be 3 1/2″ x 8 1/2″. So about 2 1/2″ longer than my card but just 1/2″ wider. That will fit in the new Slimline envelopes or the #10 envelope. Just measure whatever envelopes you have and size your card accordingly! Let me know if you have any other questions or email me at Karen@Karenstamps.com. Hope this helps!
What is finished size of a slim line card? I tried to make one using Stamparatus thinking it was #10 envelope size. Bad outcome.