How to Make a Floral Thank You Card with BetterPress and Club Blooms Dies

Hello there, Michelle Short here to share a step-by-step tutorial with you using the new Upright Italic Thank You! Press + Foil Plate from Paul Antonio. This beautiful plate is the perfect addition to any other products you want to combine with it, or you can combine it with a simple background, as it is large enough to pack a punch on its own! I chose to press the plate today, but it does foil beautifully, too! There are other sentiments in the collection, and they will work for this card design too; you may just need to rearrange the florals to fit.

PRESSING THE SENTIMENT

1. Flip Platen of Betterpress Letterpress System over and place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel inside the registration marks. Hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape in the corners.

2. Place Upright Italic Thank You! Press + Foil Plate onto Chase (the Chase is magnetic so it will hold in place). Use the registration marks to place it just below the centre line.
3. Tap BetterPress Black Ink onto the plate and swivel the ink pad slightly to get a good coverage of ink.

4. Flip Platten over and place onto platform (over the Chase). The magnets in the corners will hold it in place.

5. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine.

6. Lift Platten from platform to reveal pressed image.
7. Remove cardstock panel from Platen by carefully removing tape.
8. Remove plate from Chase and clean.

TIP: I used two shims underneath the Chase, but you may need more or less depending on your machine. If you are getting too much ink in places where you do not want it, remove a shim. If you are not getting a solid impression, add a shim.

CREATING THE CARD BASE

1. Add tape runner adhesive to the back of the panel.
2. Adhere flat to A2 sized (4 ¼” x 5 ½”) white card base made from Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock.

TIP: If the sentiment isn’t perfectly centred, now is the time to correct it by cutting the card base down slightly using a guillotine.

DIE CUTTING & ASSEMBLING THE FLORALS

Die cut flowers and leaves from Club Blooms Etched Dies:

1. Cut pieces of ColorWheel Cardstock to be slightly larger than the size of the dies.
2. Place the largest flower die onto Seaside ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
3. Place the smaller flower die onto Waterfall ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
4. Place the flower centres die onto Teal Topaz ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
5. Place open flower top and bottom petals dies onto Teal Topaz ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
6. Place flower centre die onto Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
7. Place leaves die onto Peridot ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.

TIP: Holding dies down with tape prevents them from shifting when going through the die-cutting machine. Use a low-tack tape like Best Ever Craft Tape so that it removes easily from the cardstock.

8. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine using the following sandwich (bottom to top):

• A Platform Base
• B Platform Top
• C Cutting Plate
• Cardstock with die on top
• C Cutting Plate

9. Remove dies from cardstock and pop out die cuts.

10. Repeat the process of die cutting to cut further dies:

• Largest flower from Seaside ColorWheel Cardstock.
• Smallest flower from Waterfall ColorWheel Cardstock.
• Flower centres from Teal Topaz ColorWheel Cardstock.
• Leaves from Rainforest ColorWheel Cardstock.

11. Repeat the process of die cutting to cut further dies:

• Flower centres from Seaside ColorWheel Cardstock. Cut this twice.
• Leaves from Peridot ColorWheel Cardstock.

12. Using Tool ‘n One, pop out the holes in the white flower centre.

13. Add Bearly Art Glue to the back and adhere to solid flower centre piece.

14. Add Bearly Art Glue to the back and adhere to back petal flower piece.
15. Adhere top petal piece on top.

TIP: I like using tweezers to adhere die cuts together. That way I can hover the pieces in place to check I like the placement before pressing it down. It also helps when the pieces are small!

16. Adhere circular flower centres to other flowers.

CARD ASSEMBLY & EMBELLISHING

1. Arrange flowers and leaves onto card base. This is easier to do first, before adhering in place, so that you can move things around where needed.

2. Add Bearly Art Glue onto the back of the leaves.

3. Adhere in place, with the bottom of the leaves tucked behind the flowers. Don’t worry if they overlap the edge of the card base at this point.

4. Add foam squares onto the back of the small flower on the left and large flower on the right.
5. Remove the backings off the foam squares.
6. Adhere in place.

7. For the flowers that overlap these two, cut foam square down using scissors and adhere to back of flowers. Add Bearly Art Glue to the parts that overlap the other flowers.
8. Adhere in place.

9. For the flower at the bottom, add foam square directly to the card base. Remove the backing and place the flower on top.

10. Flip card over and cut off the excess overhanging the sides using shears.

TIP: Cutting excess from the sides of a card base is easier from the back, as you have the edge of the card base to guide the scissors. You can also do this step using a guillotine.

11. Add Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems to the flower centres.
12. Embellish with more gems, scattering them around the flowers and leaves.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I combined florals with the beautiful Upright Italic Thank You! Press + Foil Plate. I like having a lot of white space (areas without anything) on my card, so I kept the elements to the bottom half of the card, but this design would look great at the top of a card, too. It would also look great if you scattered the flowers around the whole of the card, if you prefer a fuller look. Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!