Gingkos and other lovely things

Hi Creative Friends,

I am sharing a birthday card design that features lots of beautiful greenery created using a few Simply Graphic dies. Simply Graphic’s foliage dies are really outstanding. They have wonderful detail and design making it a dream to create with.

This card design was created for my daughter. She loves clean lines and a slightly modern look so I took a look at Simply Graphic’s Instagram page for inspiration. It is filled with oodles of ideas!

The card started with a slender white card base. It is not quite as long as a slimline. It is only 7″ tall and the usual 4.24″ wide when folded. I also created a small white card stock card panel and a striped background. I had black and white diagonal paper but the lines were too thick for this card… at least I thought so… that meant I had to create my own.

It is very easy, especially when you use a see-through ruler with grid lines on it (see supply list). I started with a square piece of white cardstock (a square shape is easiest when finding a true 45-degree angle), placed my ruler at each corner diagonally, and drew a line with my 01 Mangaka pen (Pigma Micron works great too). Once the first line is drawn, I positioned the ruler one grid line over and drew the next line… and so on until all the lines are drawn to cover the panel.

With my striped paper done, I trimmed it down to be very slightly smaller than the card front panel, adhered it to the front, then set it aside.

Using a variety of cardstock papers (white, Antique Gray, Desert Storm, and Antique Gold), I cut a bunch of Gingko leaves and leaves using the Gingko and Foliage dies. I also cut two large foliage stems from white card stock using the Large Foliage die and several open leaves using the Folded Foliage die.

With the smaller white panel made earlier, I first splattered black dots of Sumi ink in the center, then let it dry. Next, I added a foam backing to the panel, then wound natural and black twine vertically in the center. Next, I positioned the two large foliage stems end to end on top of the twine. From there, I arranged the ginkgo leaves and remaining leaves, tucking them in here and there and graduating in color.

For the sentiment, I stamped Happy Birthday from the Hello stamp set onto a thin strip of chipboard using Versafine Black Onyx ink, then tied it to the card with a piece of natural twine to finish. ♥

Goodies Used: