I’m a little late to the party on the slimline card trend, but my goodness, am I ever loving it right now! The longer format has been perfect for providing a little more space, and that’s been especially convenient for some of my longer sentiment dies – as you’re about to see! But first, let’s chat dimensions.
In case you’re not familiar, a slimline card measures 3 1/2″ wide x 8 1/2″ tall, and fits comfortably into a #10 business envelope. In the past I’ve always stuck to the 4 1/4″ wide x 5 1/2″ tall size for most of my designs, but slimline cards are really easy to cut bases for too. Here’s how:
- Grab a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ heavyweight cardstock (this is my go-to cardstock for card bases) and a paper trimmer
- Trim 3″ off the long side of the cardstock so that you’re left with a piece that measures 7″ x 8 1/2″
- Score it down the center at the 3 1/2″ mark.
- Fold it in half and make a crease. You’re ready to go!
As for that leftover piece, I’ve been trimming them slightly and using them as background panels on my slimline cards, so while you won’t get 2 card bases out of an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet, you can still minimize waste.
Right, onto the card! I started by trimming a piece of vellum to serve as my background. Next, I die cut a bunch of holly and berries from The Stamp Market’s Color Crush cardstock in Party Pink and Jade, a combo I’ve been loving a lot lately! While I was at it, I also die cut my sentiment using the Scripty Fa La La die – the shadow in pink and the inner script from glitter cardstock. This sentiment is a wide one that hangs off the edges of a 4 1/4″ wide x 5 1/2″ tall card if your card base is in the portrait orientation, but on a landscape slimline card, there’s more than enough space for it.
With all of the pieces ready to go, I adhered my holly and berries to the vellum background, trimming the extra bits off the edges so that they’d fit neatly onto the card. Layered on top went the Scripty Fa La La, and to create some extra dimension, I centered the vellum on my card base using skinny foam strips placed under the holly leaves.
So tell me, what size cards do you prefer making? Right now I’m loving the slimline ones, but most of my background cover dies are meant for 4 1/4″ wide x 5 1/2″, so you can expect to see a mix of both from me going forward!