Creating Scalloped Oval Note Cards

Last week’s card challenge at Mothers and Daughters Creations was to CASE a card by one of their designers. Depending on the source, to CASE someone’s work means to “Copy And Share Everything” or to “Copy And Selectively Edit”. Whichever description you use, the process is still the same. You use someone’s card or project as inspiration for one of your own and you change at least two things on the card, so it's not a duplicate of the original work.

I love this set of note cards made by Maria Levine.

What I did: I loved the scalloped border but since I don’t have a set of round Nestabilities, I cut my cards with scalloped oval Nestabilities. I used a different palette and different papers, but I used a floral design and layered the ovals to add depth as she did.

How to Make Oval or Round Cards That Open on a Fold:

The goal is to cut a folded card with an oval die placed slightly over the fold so that there is a residual fold left in the card that has been cut in the shape of an oval.


First, score and fold a 5.5” by 8.5” piece of card stock in half to create a card base. Then select three oval dies in serially increasing sizes, with the largest being as close as possible to the size of the card base. Choose designer paper for your card and an image that will be the focal point of your card to coordinate with it.







For this card, I chose this adorable little girl from Stampavie and colored her with watercolor pencils. Because I planned to cut her out and mount her on my card, I only painted the portions of the image that I planned to use in the design – the little girl, two parts of the flower sprigs, and the butterfly.


Using a Cuttlebug and Nestabilities: Although most any type of cutter/cutting system can be used, I made these cards using a Cuttlebug and Nestabilities, so I am giving instructions for using these tools.

Layer the cover stock or patterned paper you plan to use for the card front under the folded card base and position them on the A and C plates of a Cuttlebug. Place the die perfectly level on the paper with the left edge far enough over the fold to leave 2-3 inches uncut. Cover with a B plate and run through the Cuttlebug. (Note: Ordinarily you would run this through with the die facing up, under the paper, but to try and flip it over makes it almost impossible to get the papers lined of correctly for a perfectly even cut.)

Cut ovals in a contrasting paper and white with the middle and smallest sized oval dies. This paper from Bo Bunny is reversible, and for this card, I used the reverse pattern for my contrasting paper. The paper has a distressed effect and I cut my oval over a portion that had streaks of the contrasting colors running through it.






Punch flower shapes from the scraps of paper with various sized decorative flower punches. With a scrap of olive green, punch 1/8 inch circles and small (1/4”) suns for flower centers, and small leaf shapes.




Arrange blossoms along the bottom curve of the oval. I added the two painted blossoms as well, and then added my image of the little girl. Although it shows up as golden yellow in the photograph, I touched up her kerchief with a gold gel pen – it looks much better in real life! I also added tiny gold dots and flourishes to the punched flower border and glued a small punched flower over the flower she is holding in her hands.

I like a finished look to the inside of my cards and I am always concerned about ribbon tearing through punched holes, so if I am going to thread ribbon through holes in a card (rather than wrap it around a panel), I generally set eyelets. I used two eyelets in a coordinating color for placement of ribbon for a decorative bow.

The finishing touches.

On the inside of the card, I added some punched blossoms and the painted butterfly and embellished them with tiny gold dots and flourishes. Then, I finished the card off by layering two pieces of ribbon tied into a soft bow.