Handmade Cards for your Friends

Ever wanted to come up with handmade cards for your friends, but then felt frustrated as you couldn’t come up with a card to make? Well my friend, today I will share with you how you can overcome this by following a challenge.

More specifically a color combination challenge, which is the theme of today’s Crafty Challenge blog hop. 

So make sure you follow along and hop with us to see all the participating blogs’ projects. I am sure that when you see what we all created for this challenge, you will get lots and lots of ideas and inspiration to make handmade cards for your friends! 

Plus you know I love a good challenge, and sketches and color combinations are always calling my name!  So I am super excited to share with you the cards I made for this challenge. 

Let’s get started!

Handmade Cards for your Friends 

Whenever you feel like you can’t figure out where to start when making a card, try to look for a challenge. There are multiple challenges and these always give you an idea of where to start. 

In this case, I use the color challenge provided by Stefanie from The Crafty Medic, which you can see below 

Once I see the color combination, I usually go and look for patterned paper in these colors, as well as the cardstock. Plus I like to add some basic colors, like Basic White as well as maybe a specialty color that could go well with it, or that I can use for embellishments. 

In this case, I thought that silver would go really well with the color combo. Not to mention, that doing this helps me as well to pick gems or ribbon to go with my cards. 

Stamp sets

Once I have the patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments I want to use, I look for a stamp set to coordinate.

I will be very honest, it seems like a lot of the times I go for flowers, but you can be picking so many other sets, specially like patterns or something more generic that could go in any color.  Additionally, I love to select sentiment sets, to have extra sentiments for my cards either to go for the inside or as the focal point itself. 

And once I have defined the stamp set, then I just start playing with sketches and the products I selected.. At this point making cards, end up being super easy. 

For these cards, here are the stamp sets I selected: 

1. Pretty Perennials
2. Fancy Phrases 
3. Floral Essence 
4. Happy Thoughts 
5. So Sentimental 

Finished Cards, Sketches and other details 

So here you have all the cards I have made for this challenge, what do you think? 

All look different and each has a different theme, but all are perfect as handmade cards for your friends, don’t you think? 

 

Handmade Card #1

     

For this first card, I used the designer series paper from the Dandy Garden Suite for a strip in the card as well as for the envelope.  I don’t think I share a lot of cards where I have embellished the envelope, but I can honestly say that this makes a card looks even more professional and as a part of a card set. Little details as this will always help you make cards look even better.. 

Also note that I used the flowers from the pretty perennials to make my own designer series paper, in the colors that were provided. If you want to learn more about how to make your own patterned paper with stamps, you can read to this post, where I actually provided lots of tips using this same stamp set, but in different colors. So you can get even more ideas for this set in other colors while making your own designer series paper. 

The sentiment was stamped in a circle from the stitched shapes dies and a little banner, using the same stamp set. And for the bow, I used the metallic edge ribbon (silver) which is white and would complement the card beautifully. 

Handmade Card # 2

     

For this card, I decided to make another stamped background using the Fancy Phrases. I used the larger of the flowers, but I rotated the image as I stamped it. And to finish this card off, I embossed it  using the subtle embossing folder. 

The sentiment came from the So Sentimental stamp set, and I used the dies from this bundle to make the labels for the sentiment. 

Finally, please note that I colored the same ribbon I used in the previous card with the stamping blends. This allowed me to have the ribbon in the same color as the label. In this case it was Misty Moonlight. 

I love to do this as it helps me get all the elements in my card color coordinate, making even easier putting cards together! 

You can see another card example using this same stamp set in another blue card in this post, however this time, I did a watercolor pattern using the Aqua painters. So you can think of other ways to make your backgrounds while playing with the same supplies. 

Handmade Card # 3

     

For this card I used the Night of Navy sheet from the designer series paper in the Neutral pack. Having the paper packs in the family colors always helps me for color challenges, specially if I don’t have a paper pack using the colors needed for the color combo challenge. 

So it is always a great idea to have the family color paper packs as you can use them for random color combinations you want to try.

As far as the layout, it seems like lately, I have been loving shifting the layers in an angle, so I can see a little bit more from the layers in the card. Give it a try, it changes the looks an I think it makes it look even trendier. 

Anyway for this one I use the flowers from the Floral Essence as the embellishment of my card, plus these flowers added dimension to the card, as you can curled them before gluing them out.  And for the bow, I used the white backer’s twine from the snail mail twine combo pack. 

The sentiment came from the Happy Thoughts stamp set, and the labels came from the hippo & friends dies. 

Handmade Card # 4

     

And for this final card, you can see I only used the one color – Misty Moonlight with Basic White. If you are starting out, and feel intimidated by the color combination, you can always dial down and use one color with a neutral color.  

And when you do this, then you just pull cardstock and embellishments in the one color, in this case I use the Misty Moonlight for the cardstock, the designer series paper as well as the ribbon..  Color coordination for your projects always makes it easy to put the cards together, plus you will see they look amazing every single time! 

The Designer series paper I used is the one from the Dandy Garden Suite and the sentiment came from the So sentimental stamp set! 

If you want to see more Thank you cards with the Dandy Garden Suite, you can see this post. These ones are using the Green and Yellow patterns. 

Final Thoughts

Hope you have enjoyed all the projects using the color combination from this challenge. I shared with you different ways to use this color combination in your cards. So next time you are struggling with finding where to start making cards, give it a try  and play with color combination challenges.. Just look for a color combo and start making cards.. 

I try to put color combinations in my blog posts, so you can use any of these to start the process..  

Finally, If you want to get any of the items I am showing in my cards, you can get them at my store, so make sure you see the full supply list below. When you click to any of the images, it will take you to my store where you can purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! supplies.. I really appreciate your support 🥰

The Blog Hop Line Up

And as mentioned at the beginning, this post is part of a blog hop, so make sure you visit all participating blogs.

I know you will get lots of ideas for your next handmade card for your friends! 

See below the full line up! 

The Supply List

You can see below the full list of Items I used to make these cards, if you click on the images below it will take you to my online store where you can purchase any of these items. I truly appreciate your continuous support  🥰

Want to remember this post for later? Save these Friendship Handmade Card Ideas in your favorite board!