Clear Cards - Create A Card With A Twist -

Okay friends, this might be my favorite card that I’ve made in a while. I love making clear acetate cards. They are just a fun and unusual design. After I completed the With a Twist class from Altenew, I knew this was the “twist” I wanted to use. I can’t wait to make more!

I was inspired by the House Plants Layering Die set from the January Altenew release. I could just picture a floral hanging basket with the leaf tendrils reaching down off a die cut panel. So I grabbed some cardstock scraps in shades of green, purple and yellow. Then I die cut from those to get an assortment of flowers and greenery. You can’t really see the hanging basket. In hindsight I should have picked a darker cardstock so that it stood out a bit more. I chose a warm gray cardstock for the pot and a dark gray for the rim. In the photo, the rim is cut from the same warm gray as the pot but I decided afterward to make it darker. The handle was cut from a metallic copper cardstock scrap as well as white. I glued the copper piece to the white piece to make it a bit more sturdy.

I needed something to adhere the die cuts to because gluing those directly to the acetate would just make a mess and not look very good. I chose the Blanket Stitched Hexagon dies from Pinkfresh Studio and used the second largest die to cut four panels from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 100lb cardstock.

With all my pieces cut, it was time to assemble the flowers. I adhered each layer together with liquid glue as instructed on the guide with the die set. The large flowers use the keyhole system to help you align them correctly. Love that!

To create my acetate card panel, I cut a piece of heavy weight acetate to 11 by 4 1/4 inches then folded in half and creased with my teflon bone folder. It’s important to use a heavy weight acetate here so it stands up to the weight of your card elements. With my panel created, I adhered each hexagon to the card base. The first I centered on the front of the card and adhered with double sided tape. To conceal the adhesive, I adhered another to the inside of the card base just behind it. The third piece I adhered to the very back of the card, lining it up with the other two which was easy to do because you can see right through your card base. Once that was adhered, I opened up the card base again and adhered my final piece directly over the one I placed on the back to conceal that adhesive.

I placed my assembled hanging basket onto my card front in the center to get an idea for placement. I did not adhere it down so I could place die cuts behind it and on it while I figured out my final design. I placed a few pieces behind the pot hanging down and one pointing upward. Have you ever heard of thrillers, fillers and spillers with regard to arrangements? Your thrillers are the plants/flowers that grow tall. Fillers are the ones you would consider the middle of an arrangement. Then the spillers the ones that spill out and hang down. That’s kind of the look I was going for here. Once I was happy with my placement, I adhered everything down with liquid glue. I was careful to allow pieces hang free and only apply glue to the top most portion of the leaves. The flowers were only adhered at the very center.

For the sentiment, I used the sentiment included in the die set. I cut the word from a dark gray cardstock and then the shadow layer from white. I placed foam squares on the half of the die cut hanging off the pot and used liquid glue to adhere the other side to the pot. For the embellishments, I chose my favorite Champagne and Strawberries Rose Gold confetti from Trinity Stamps.

You know we aren’t done yet. ;) For the inside, I grabbed a leftover flower and some greenery. I adhered those pieces to the inside card panel for the finishing touch. This card really came together so quickly. I was so excited about my result that I ran upstairs to show my husband. He thought the clear card was pretty cool. I hope this inspires you to create your own clear cards. If you haven’t tried these yet you really should. Thank you so much for stopping by today. Now go get crafty!