Home Sweet Home Housewarming Invitations

Hey there! This is Stephanie Vittorio from Coffee Stamps Chaos to share these fun housewarming invitations I recently created! 

I am over the moon to have been chosen to join this design team! Aren’t my teammates SUPER talented? I think they are! I just love being part of such a kind and diverse team of people with varying talents and paper crafting interests! I find their projects so interesting and inspiring! I hope you do too! 

One of the things I love about Cardstock Warehouse is the quality as well as the wide variety of colors, textures & weights of paper available! My personal favorite collection is the Sparkle Collection! I love that there are 6 color options, how smooth it is, how crisply it die cuts, and it’s just so dang beautiful and sparkly!!!! Isn’t that sparkle just the perfect addition to the other colors chosen for this project? 

I’m a card maker & paper crafter. It’s something I’m very passionate about and it’s been a passion of mine since 2007! I love to die cut, stamp, color (using a variety of mediums) and assemble cards. The process of creating something from nothing brings me so much joy and satisfaction. I also love making others happy with handmade creations. I love adding lots of layers and sparkle to my cards so it’s natural that I would love the Sparkle Collection the most. 

When my cousin commissioned me to make her 20 housewarming invitations, I asked her if she had any ideas as to what she wanted. We collaborated and this is the project I came up with to fit her needs. 

When I’m making a large number of the same cards, in this case 20 - A2 size (4 1/4” x 5 1/2”) cards; I find it’s easiest to get all of my supplies out first, count how many sheets of paper I will need to complete the project, select my dies and come up with a layout. I figure out how many die cuts I will need to complete my project. I’ve found it’s best to get the tedious stuff done first and save assembly for the end. Although I do usually first die cut enough supplies for one card, choose my layout and play with that until I have decided I am happy with it,  so I don’t waste supplies by changing my mind midway through my project. Once I am happy with the layout, I then finish cutting my supplies for the project and create an assembly line working on each layer as I go. 

Supplies used:

• Cardstock from Cardstock Warehouse 
• Gold Touch from the Sparkle Collection
• True White and Kraft 80lb from the Speckletone Collection
• Electric Red from the Foundations Collection
• Cutting Dies 
• Pleated Lace dies from Gina Marie Designs
• Nesting Rectangle Dies from Hero Arts
• Small Heart and Houses from my stash (I don't know what brands)
• Sentiment Stamp from the Unity Stamp Company KOTM - Pretty Darn Amazing
• Embossing Powder (I used Brutus Monroe Fairy Dust EP  - I love the sparkle it gives when heat-set)
• Heat Gun 
• Acid-Free Permanent Adhesive - I use a 3M Advanced Tape Glider (ATG) 
• Zig 2-Way Glue Pen
• Double Sided Foam Tape or Pop Dots 
• Paper Trimmer with cutting and scoring blades
• Die Cutting Machine 
• Scissors to trim foam tape 
• I use Fiskars nonstick titanium scissors; great for cutting sticky stuff and not getting stuck!

Card Assembly:

• Cut your card bases and set aside. 
• Stamp and emboss sentiments then trim them to fit your card front. Layer if desired. Set aside.
• Die cut all the layers (its time consuming but the end result is worth the effort) For this project, I needed to die cut 20 large houses & 40 smaller houses (gold touch), 20 hearts (red),  20 Pleated Lace Layers (red) & 20 rectangle layers (true white)

• Assemble pleated lace layers, then adhere them to your card bases using ATG adhesive
• Attach houses to your assembled card base, I popped up the larger houses with foam tape to add dimension, the smaller houses were glued on using a 2 way glue pen.

• Adhere hearts using foam tape for dimension. 
• Attach sentiment strip to your cards. * I added foam tape to the backs for some added dimension. 

Here is the finished product, I am very happy with how they turned out and my cousin was, too!

Thank you for joining me as I shared my very first project as a Cardstock Warehouse Design Team member! I am excited to bring you more inspiring and beautiful projects in the future and hope you’ll follow along! Be sure to connect with Cardstock Warehouse on Instagram and Facebook! Be sure to use #cardstockwarehouse on your projects using Cardstock Warehouse products so we can see them, show some love and be featured on our Instagram!

Happy Crafting!

Hugs,

Stephanie Vittorio (Coffee Stamps Chaos)