Flower gardens around the US are blooming and many are in full color. Have you explored your neighborhood or community gardens for inspiration?
This Abstract Flowers Watercolor Painting found at Creative Fabrica inspired this card and a desire to enjoy the beauty found in a garden filled with color that reaches all the senses.
Designer: Photo-iget
The fence was created using elements from the Wooden Fence Clipart Set
Designer: Creative Clip Cloud
The arch was created in SCAL 5 software – file linked below
Additional Supplies:
- Paper (8.5 x 11 white Neenah)
- Files from Creative Fabrica (links above)
- Electronic Cutting machine and associate software
- Garden Gate Arch SVG – free download here
- Printer
- Scoring tool
- Craft knife
- Glue
- Scor-Tape ¼ inch, 1/8 inch
Let’s get started
Open your cutting machine’s software. Place a vertical rectangle in the upper left corner of your cutting mat. Size to 5.50 W x 8.50 L. Make sure the upper left corner of the rectangle is at Y: 0;0 and the X:0;0. Set the color to white and no stroke.
Open the abstract illustration and drag to the mat. You’ll need to resize it to 5.50 W x 6.375 L. Rotate the image 90 degrees to the right and place on the rectangle with the image 2.125 inches from the top of the rectangle. The area above the picture will be left blank.
Make sure your page set up is set to use the Card base preset (you may need to create one specific for your printer – if you don’t have one in your presets). Your printer should also be set to the preset for perfect printing.
Cut two pieces of white cardstock to 5.50 x 8.50 and insert into the appropriate tray for printing and print.
Since the cardstock is already pre-cut, you are ready to score one of the cards. Score at 2 1/8 inch and again at 4 ¼ inch. Mountain fold the score at 2 1/8 inch and create a valley fold at 4 ¼ inch. This creates a basic Z-fold card base. If you prefer something already created for you, there is a file called Double Z card template by Arda Designs (JPG or PNG format only)
On the second piece of cardstock, you’ll use the craft knife to cut a bit of garden to make a nice border for the gate and fence. Leave a tab at the far left to glue to the front fold on the left. You will need to score at 4 ¼ and again at 6 3/8 . It should look something like the image above.
TIP: Hang onto the remaining piece you’ll be fussy cutting some of the flowers to fill the pots on the front of the card.
Set the card aside for right now and let’s cut the fence and gate. You’ll need to open your cutting software and drag the following svgs to the mat: Asset 6 for the gate and Asset 7 for the fence. There are several layers in the colored images. An all-white fence was chosen for this project, so a copy of the longer piece (asset 7) was copied, pasted, overlapping slightly, the command Union was used to form the longer length of the fence and to cut as one continuous piece. It measures 4.250w and 1.892h. For more stability in the fence and a little more detail since there will be a bend, add a rectangle (4.250w and 0.146h ) to the top rail and cut a second rail for the bottom rail of the fence aligning to the one in the cut. You may need to trim the fence slightly on one of the edges.
Cut 4 of the arches (SVG/pdf file linked above in the supplies list). You’ll glue and stack them one on top of the other. For the gate you’ll cut one of Asset 6 and again, make 2 rails for the gate (top and bottom). The rails are slightly longer than the gate allowing you to glue to the back of the arch on the left front side. Trim the excess for a clean finish. The gate will swing open.
Glue the longer portion of the fence to the back of the garden piece you cut earlier. Make sure the left front edge of the fence does not extend beyond the fold. Glue the arch in place on the front of the same piece. Make sure the folds align and you can close and open the card easily.
The front of the card consists of 2 panels. The larger of the two panels measures 2 ¼ w x 5 ½ h. A piece of scrap paper from a previous make was used as well as a small strip of the same piece along the far right side of the card for some consistency.
The top panel on the front of the card measures 1 7/8 w x 5 h. The coloring was made using distress inks (Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Grape preserves and a splash of water here and there.
Adhere the two panels to the front face of the card.
Fussy cut 3 bouquets from the print you cut a piece from earlier. Using some scrap cardstock, cut 3 pots to house your bouquets. Ink and shade as desired. Secure to the bottom of the front panel. Some pop dots were used for a little dimension
Add desired sentiments – for this card, the word ‘bloom’ was used and cut in SCAL5 using a Serif Font. The WAVE command in the Effects tab was used for a little more movement and dimension. If needed, you can use the negative of the cut to help place the letters if you’re wanting it to follow the same line that was created in the SCAL software. Adhere to the front of the card. If desired additional sentiments and a personal message can be added to the back of the card using stamps or print an additional panel if desired.
Thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed a ‘walk’ in the garden today.
Please visit Jan’s author’s page or blog for more inspiration.
This article was written by
