Ladies and Gents Birthday Card Tutorial with Graphic 45 World’s Fair

Hello, Friends!  Happy Labor Day!  I hope you are able to kick back, relax and find some extra creative time today. I’m up on the Graphic 45 blog , sharing this Ladies and Gents birthday card tutorial.  The cards are made with the vibrant colors and inspiring images from the World’s Fair Collection.

  World’s Fair is such a great choice for autumn cards!  The colors are vibrant, and the theme reminds me of all the small town country fairs that take place in the fall.  This pair of pocket cards makes me happy every time I look at them.  I created  a Snapguide tutorial for the gents card, as many of you have told me that they are hard for you to make.  I hope this will give you another masculine card layout that you can adapt for any occasion.

Snapguide Tutorial for Ladies and Gents Birthday Card

Check out How to Graphic 45 Masculine Birthday Card W/Pockets by Kathy Clement on Snapguide.

A Birthday Card for the Gents

I love these vintage men in their dapper hats and suits.

When working with lots of different patterns, it really helps to mat each card component.  I often use black paper for this task, but for this card, this mustard yellow cardstock did the job nicely.  It kept the card light and festive, and kept the patterns from all running into one another.

To add some texture to the card, I included some metal elements.  A metal key, some gears and a hot air balloon were each tapped with Distress Paint that complemented the papers.  It’s a small detail that makes a big difference.

A Peek Inside the Gents’ Card

I wanted this birthday card to feel fun and adventurous, so I really dressed up the inside with stamped birthday greetings and lots of color.

Blocks of color were added to the top of the card by using 6×6 patterns, fussy cut images and a fun tag and pocket.

Add a personal greeting to the tag, and tuck a small gift in the pocket, and your birthday gift is ready to give.

The bottom half feels just like a walk down the midway at the fair.

Tags are such fun to tuck into a pocket!  This one is topped with an old fashioned clock brad.  A simple stamped sentiment completes the card.

A Birthday Card for the Ladies

Policy Envelopes (from the Graphic 45 Staples line) are a card maker’s best friend!  On this birthday card for the ladies, I used a small red policy envelope as a focal point in the sentiment collage. The red is a perfect color match, and the interesting text/pattern combination really anchors the design.

I also love using the reverse side of the ephemera card pack as a design layer.  The fussy cut flowers and balloons really pop against these two design features.

Yellow wrinkled ribbon is topped with gold metallic string and a vintage button from my stash.  Diamond Stickles add just the right amount of glitz to the card.

Here’s a neat trick!  Cut two of the sentiment panels from the collection.  Trim one out in a square.  Add faux stitching with a  tracing wheel (from the sewing notions department).  I just ran the wheel through my ink pad.  Then I lay my steel edged ruler along the edges of the trimmed sentiment and added “stitches”.  This ornate design would be very hard to fussy cut.  I solved this by cutting around the basic shape on the second panel.  Then I backed it with foam dimensionals and very carefully lined it up with the base.  These two tricks really make the sentiment pop off the page.

A Peek Inside the Ladies’ Birthday Card

Another pocket full of fun awaits!

Stamped greetings and a waterfall feature fill this interactive card with FUN!  The die from Tammy Tutterow is fast becoming one of my favorites!

Write a little note here….

And tuck little goodies inside these pockets.

But wait!  There’s more fun inside the large pocket!

I created a matching book mark, mini tag and a photo mount using images from the collection.  Does this card feel like a party, or what?

Thanks so much for joining me here today!  I hope you were inspired by this Ladies and Gents Birthday Card tutorial.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Keep calm, and craft on!

Cheerio,

kathy

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