Lili of the Valley ~ Birthday Boy Criss Cross Card

Hey crafty friends, this post will be photo heavy as this is quite an involved make and there are lots of elements to share, but the first is this adorable image from Lili of the Valley. It was released in March and was part of a set of releases that featured these adorable rodents. We have a family member who adores rats, they're in the middle of the process of getting a pet rat! So it was absolutely perfect to make this card for them. I got really engrossed in the process of making this a fun fold design with pockets and inserts and fun extra elements. Every surface was decorated and I did pull in a few elements from lots of different designers to achieve this, but the focus is very definitely the adorable image front and centre.

I've coloured this adorable image with Copic Markers and I'll drop an image showing the markers here. Just click it to blow it up full size, so you can see the marker numbers better. 

I did Copic Colour the background too, which I used a mix of pale Blues for and Warm Greys for the ground. I really like how this sweet character looks coloured up. A really fun and cute result. I did also add some touches of sparkle to the birthday crown, with Clear Shimmer Marker to add a little extra brilliance to the crown.

I didn't want to use the back of the Criss Cross card as the journalling or message writing section, but decided it would be fun to decorate it anyway, so every aspect of this design had a special look and feel. I used the lovely Honey Bee Paper Packs - Halloween Harvest and Harvest Festival for the plaid and liner on the front of the card. The woodgrain and knit papers on this make are from the Harvest Festival pack but the gorgeous plaid is from the Halloween Harvest pack. I love the colours and designs in both these paper packs and I'm sad to have used up a few of my favourite sheets already! But there are so many good ones in these packs, I'm pretty sure I'll get through them all. 

I used the remainder of the dark woodgrain panel after cutting the matte for the front of the design to add to the back. I lined the back of the kraft card base with the white panel first then I used some Antique Linen to create a little colour on the white panel before adding the viewfinder picture wheel which is cut from glossy white cardstock. I diecut lots of interesting little elements to add in place, from a mix of ephemera and washi tape. I used a couple of lovely mushroom ephemera pieces to embellish the centre and added the filmstrips which I diecut the centres for, from cool old map washi tape. I added a rub on in the top right hand corner from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Specimen Remnant Rubs pack. The little batch number down the left hand side is also from this same pack. The sentiment on this side of the design is from the Whimsy Stamps set Enjoy The Little Things. It's retired now, but a timeless set.

The joy of a Criss Cross design is the open pocket it creates in the front and it was fun to make a panel to fit into that pocket. I used a piece of kraft card and put white paper on one side and one of the lighter woodgrain papers from the Harvest Festival Paper pack on the other. I rounded the corners of the base first to avoid the cardstocks catching when they are going in and out of the pocket and did the same to both papers before adhering them to the base. Once the papers were glued down, I added a topper so there was an obvious detail to lift the paper from. I used the clipboard topper from the Tim Holtz Vault Noteworthy Die Set and which I think makes a fun pull tab for this design. I added some May Arts Ivory Twine through the eyelet to complete this section of the design. 

I grabbed my VersaFine Clair Pinecone Ink to do the stamping on the insert panel. That fabulous and dramatic happy birthday sentiment I used on the woodgrain side of the panel is from the Whimsy Stamps Birthday Sketch Clear Stamps. The little sparkles are from the same set and I've stamped them around the sentiment for added impact. I wanted to personalise this panel, so used the Tim Holtz Vault World Travel Die Set and cut Ricky's name out from a piece of white cardstock that I swiped the Pinecone Ink over to match the colour of the stamped sentiment. I love this element on the design, it's what next levels it. I think any time you can personalise a design, makes it extra special.

I had an older stamp set in my stash which has some really fun sentiments in it, tongue in cheek, funny ones, which I thought would be a giggle for this card. The company this was from was called CASual Fridays and the stamp set was called Supercalifragilistic. It's got some brilliant sentiments in it, and though they have sadly now closed, Simon Says Stamp has bought some of their images and designs and brought out a set that includes the sentiments I've used which you can find here. I think it was a fun extra sentiment that gets revealed as the insert is pulled up out of the pocket.

On the flip side, is where I wrote the birthday message, but I first used another of the fabulous bold sentiments from the Whimsy Stamps Birthday Sketch Clear Stamps. I also used the candles from this set and I used some Glitter Brush Markers to add some colour to the flames and some goldy shine to the actual candles. I diecut the 24 from the same set as the letters and added this over the candles. I wanted it to be there, but subtly, so chose to stick with the Pinecone Ink for these too. The Glitter Marker details are easier to see in the image below. I used a red, orange and yellow marker for the flames and a brown marker for the candles which didn't have colour and a gold marker for the candle that had stamped brown details. I also added some golden sheen to the wish part of the sentiment. This was from a Nuvo Glitter Marker.

One additional thought to share with this design. The easiest way to make a Criss Cross Card is to take two card bases the same size and glue the left side of one to the right side of the other, so that the two cards loose flaps close over the front. Then trim the flaps in the front diagonally to create the criss cross effect, from one top corner down to the opposite corner. I layered the lovely plaid paper over each diagonal which I trimmed to fit with a little border around each edge.

Once the flaps are crossed at the front and adhered together, there is a slight dip in the paper height of the lower flap, which I remedied by diecutting another circle with the Whimsy Circle Die I used to do the image and matte layers. I trimmed the circle down so it was just the section that could fill the gap and stop a 'dip down' effect when I layered over the matted image panel. This evens out the heights of the paper and ensures the image sits flush and even. I adhered the image over the circle using it to guide my centre point, which worked really well. When adhering the two flaps to each other, glue only the section that overlaps and I used red liner tape to seal the very base of the design inside the two flaps, so that it seals the base of the pocket. Making sure to ensure that no tape or adhesive affects the area you wish to be the open pocket. 

I wanted to include a mini slimline envelope to stash some birthday cash in, which needed decorate too obviously, so I pulled out the same stamp set I used earlier from CASual Fridays and stamped the fab sentiment on the envelope front. The funny one about a pony, is from a Simon Says Stamp set called Tag Lines. It has some fun sassy sentiments perfect for this type of thing!

I think I've explained most of the process, hopefully sufficiently well you could give it a go to create a Criss Cross card yourself? If you've any questions, leave me a comment below, I'd be happy to explain further, but I think this post is plenty long enough now! Thanks for popping in friends, I hope you've enjoyed this make and I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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