Birthday wishes card folder

A couple of months ago, my stamping friend, fellow Krafty Kat and Stampin' UP! upline, Miriam, showed me some card folders she had made, each containing matching cards and envelopes. I thought they were such a cute idea and that they would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I had the great notion that I could make them themed - one for birthday cards, one for thank you cards, one for thinking of you cards, etc. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, when I finally got started on them, I quickly realized I was going to be lucky to get one folder set done for each person on my list, so there went that idea!

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all the ones I did, starting with the first one I made, when I still thought I'd be doing them by category. It contains four birthday cards, each with the same sentiment.

The first picture shows the folder cover. The ribbon goes through the folder to hold the cards in place, as shown in the next photo, and is tied with a bow to keep it closed up.

This is the open folder with the four cards held in place by the ribbon.

I stamped the focal image from each card on its coordinating envelope. I also decorated the inside of each card with strips of the patterned paper and card stock, but I won't bore you with all of those photos!

For each card there is the matted focal image, the matted patterned paper and the stamped sentiment, but each one is laid out a bit differently, using different Nestability dies.

All of the images were colored with Copic markers and each one was airbrushed while still in its Nestability die to give it a nice background and add the appearance of an additional mat. I was trying to keep them from being too thick so they would fit into the folders better. I did end up revising the folder template that Miriam had given me to deepen the spine and the pockets.

This was a fun project and I really liked how this whole set turned out. I only had one sheet of that beautiful patterned paper, so I'm not sure I will be able to duplicate these cards, but I will be able to create 'refill' cards using the same color scheme once these run out. Assuming the recipient liked them and lets me know when they have been used up, of course!

Card details:
Patterned paper: K&Company Ancestry.com Teal Floral & Newsprint Flat Paper
Card stock: Prism Island Mist Medium and Dark; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Inks: Adirondack Mushroom, Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Misc.: Copic Markers (W1,E31, E37,E55,E57,G94,G29,G82,Y38,BG10,BG15,BG72); brads; Nestabilities