Quilted explorer

For my birthday (34, my goodness ... I'm just getting started!), Mom bought me some Lili of the Valley stamps and die cuts, and I'm been itching to use some of the adorable little boy stamps! The Little Pirate and Sleeping Reader make a nice set.

In order to use two stamps on one card, I decided to make what I'll call a Notch Swing Card. The concept is simple: secure a piece of paper slightly larger than the cut-out space by cutting small slits, or notches, in both. I put this card together in SCAL, and if you'd like to try it you can download my SVG files via the link at the bottom of this post (please leave a comment if you do).

I couldn't resist making something for the Columbus Day challenge at CCEE Stampers ("Make a card with a ship, ocean, or anything that relates to this day."). I grew up near Puerto de Santa María, where Columbus set sail for his second voyage to the New World. For seven years, I spent Columbus Day with the Girl Scouts, trekking to the church where he prayed before his voyage. Columbus Day isn't very popular in the States these days, since people doubt his "discovery" legacy, but I've always enjoyed the lesson of Columbus: Follow your dreams; They might not lead where you imagined, but it will be a great adventure.

The background was inspired by the Photo Inspiration/Use Your Scraps challenge at DYSU. Not only are the colors in the photo example beautiful, I liked the idea of using up my scraps to create a quilted feeling.

I sewed on the buttons, and I'm entering this into the Button Up! challenge at Divas by Design. I stamped & colored the images on Hammermill cardstock, fussy-cut them, and glued them onto the blue linen paper.

Here's card closed flat:

Here it is winging open one way (see photo at the top of this post for the view with it swing the other way):

I put the message section on the back so that the inside served as a sort of background for the front. Here's the inside:

And here it is open from the back:

Inspiration:
CCEE Stampers / CCEE1141: Columbus Day

DYSU #41: Use Your Scraps + Photo Inspiration
Divas by Design #12: Buttons

Stamps: Lili of the Valley

Paper: stash (scraps), Hammermill, China Blue Eyes Linen Finish Card Stock from Mark's Finest Papers

Tools: Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, MS detailing scissors, Marvy heat tool, sewing machine

Other: ZipDry glue, Simplicity thread, Recollections embossing powder
Copics: E13, YR00, E35, E31, E47, E37, YR09, B18, B39, B32, B23, B00, BG15, BG10, RV11, YG67, YG63, G99, G07, YG03, YG41, Y000, YR31, YR12 (I also used YR12/Loquat for all the edging)

Download card cut files (svg)