Baby Cards

What could be more adorable than a baby card shaped like a baby dress and pinafore? I found the template for this card at Stampington & Co., a great source for stamps, papers, and best of all, publications where you can get fantastic ideas for cards and other projects.

Here's a link to the template for this card: http://www.stampington.com/html/tempting_template_jj06.html.

I enlarged the template slightly so it would make essentially a 5 by 7 card, since it would then fit into an envelope for mailing when it was done. I traced the template onto white card stock, and then scored and folded it over at the fold line (shoulders).

Using the dress half of the card as I pattern, I traced around it onto designer paper, cut it out, and adhered it to the inside of the card. I then trimmed around the edges to even them.

I decided to treat the pinafore as an embroidered apron. First, I edged the entire pinafore by brushing it with an ink pad, daffodil for the yellow card and rosebud for the pink one. Then, I lightly penciled in a scallop, continuing along a gentle curve between the scallops on each side of the apron on the yoke area of the pinafore. I painted the scallop in with watercolor pencil paint, "floating" the color along the curve. To do this, load the color more onto one side than the other of a chisel edged or flat edge brush, not a brush with a sharp point. Place the heavily loaded side against the line and draw the brush along the scallops

I stenciled some "baby" designs from some wonderful stamps I got from Mothers and Daughters Creations across the lower curve of the pinafores. I used bronze ink on the apron for the yellow card and platinum ink for the designs for the pink card. I stamped the chick onto white card stock, painted and cut it out and glued it over where it was stamped on the pinafore. I also stamped some additional flowers onto card stock, then painted and cut them out. I stamped a flower cluster twice onto the apron itself and painted those flowers, but I wanted to add more blooms to make the flowers more dense.

Inside each card, I placed an oval with a message and a small floral element stamped right onto the oval and painted them.

To finish, I added a bow to the front of each pinafore, and used a gel pen to add small white dots along the edge of the sleeves and hem of the dress. These are perfect cards for a new mom who is making a scrap book or keepsake album, especially if made with acid free - lignin free paper.