Hi everyone! I’m excited to be writing my first blog post of 2026. After taking some time off during the holiday season to spend time with my family, I’m finally back in my craft room. I shared my first card of the year over on my Instagram last week. It was a cute window birthday card created using products from Lawn Fawn. For 2026, I really want to start mixing and matching card making products from my favorite companies whenever I can, and take advantage of what I already have in my collection.
For the card I’m writing about today, I decided to change things up and go in a more elegant direction, using products from Pinkfresh Studio, Altenew, Spellbinders, Pretty Pink Posh, and My Favorite Things. I know…that’s a lot of companies! I have many products from these wonderful companies, and for one reason or another, I didn’t show them much love in 2025.
Before I dive in, I wanted to mention that this card is meant to be shared as inspiration. Some of the products I used are no longer available, but you can absolutely recreate a similar look using comparable items from your own collection!
Die-cutting
One of the things I love about Pinkfresh Studio is that they offer coordinating washi tape for some of their stamp and die sets. The washi tape is beautiful and makes the entire card-making process so easy! They also sell coordinating stencils for their stamps, so if you don’t want to color with markers or pencils, you can use ink instead.
I happen to own the stamps, die, stencils, and washi tape for the Fluttering Butterflies collection, which I used on this card. For this card, I skipped all the coloring and ink blending I usually do and focused only on die cutting with the coordinating washi tape.
To start, I carefully unrolled the washi tape and adhered it to a piece of white cardstock. Next, I placed the coordinating die on top and ran everything through my die-cutting machine. This whole process was so easy and created such beautifully colored butterflies and leaves!
Arched Window Panel
I started by taking a piece of white cardstock and running it through my die-cutting machine with the Altenew Dotted Swiss Debossing Cover Die. Next, I used the largest die from the Spellbinders Essential Arches Etched die set to cut out the arched shape.
Creating the Window
When I started thinking about the card design, I knew I wanted to create a window within the arched panel, so I looked through my collection and settled on the second-largest die from MFT’s Inside & Out Stitched Arch Stax die. I thought the stitched lines on both the inside and outside of the window would add a nice touch of detail. I carefully centered the die within the larger arch, taped it down, and ran it through my die-cutting machine. This left me with both the outer arched panel with a stitched window and the inner window piece.
Building Dimension
I wanted the outer arch to be raised, so I took the second and fourth largest dies from the Spellbinders Essential Arches Etched set and taped them together. Next, I ran them through my die-cutting machine three times using white cardstock to create three frames. Then, I glued these frames behind the larger arched panel so the frame would sit higher than the background and add extra dimension.
Finally, I used the largest Essential Arches die to cut another arch from white cardstock and glued both the framed arch and the inner window piece onto it to finish the arched panel.
Sentiment
Since this was going to be a birthday card, I decided to use the “birthday” die from the Spellbinders Yana Layered Script Sentiment set as the main sentiment for this card. First, I cut the die once from gold cardstock and twice from white cardstock. Then, I glued them together to give the sentiment some dimension. I love this die set because the typography is so beautiful! It also includes coordinating shadow dies for each sentiment.
For this card, I chose not to use the shadow dies and instead added the word “wishes” by hot foiling it with gold foil using the Spellbinders Splatter Sentiments Hot Foil Plates. I wanted a bit of transparency for this part of the sentiment, so I hot foiled it onto vellum. I carefully glued it underneath the “birthday” sentiment so the adhesive wouldn’t show through.
Adding the Die-Cut Pieces & Sentiment
I spent quite a bit of time arranging all the die cut pieces within the window of the panel. Once I was happy with the layout, I glued everything into place. I made sure to add glue only to the centers of the butterflies so I could lift their wings slightly and add dimension.
Finishing the card
I finished the card panel by adding some gold pearls within the window and thin foam tape behind the lifted wings of the butterfly. I made sure to add one of these gold pearls on top of the vellum sentiment strip as a way to glue down the sentiment without the glue showing underneath. Finally, I cut another arched piece from heavyweight cardstock using the largest arch die (the same one I used to create the card panel). I scored the top of the arch about ½ inch down, folded it over with a bone folder, and adhered the folded tab to the back of the arched panel with glue to create the card base.
Final Thoughts
I am so happy with how this card turned out and really enjoyed using a variety of products from my collection to create it! I encourage you to look at your own supplies and try mixing and matching products from different companies for your next project so you can get so much more mileage out of what you already own.
That said, this doesn’t mean I won’t be purchasing new products this year. I love the creative designs my favorite companies release, and I also like supporting them! I think it’s possible to balance both: using what I already have while thoughtfully adding new pieces to my collection.
Supplies used
- Pink Fresh Studio Fluttering Butterflies washi tape and coordinating dies
- Altenew Dotted Swiss Debossing Cover die
- Spellbinders Essential Arches Etched dies
- My Favorite Things Inside & Out Stitched Arch Stax (company is no longer open)
- Spellbinders Splatter Sentiments
- Spellbinders Mini Everyday Sentiments (Hot Foil)
- Spellbinders Yana’s Layered Script Sentiments
- Pretty Pink Posh Metallic Gold Jewels
- Hammermill 100lb cardstock
- Bazzil Vellum 40lb
- Bearly Arts Craft Glue
- Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil Machine and Platinum 6
- Spellbinders Glimmer Foil – Gold
- My Favorite Things Gold Shine cardstock (company is no longer open)
Thanks so much for stopping by! I’d love to hear about projects you’ve created using products from several of your favorite companies.
