Numbers Count! | 3 Ways to Personalize Cards With Numbers

Hello there, Michelle Short here and I am delighted to be back on the Spellbinders blog today sharing three cards using the Color Mix Celebrations Collection. This collection can be used in so many different ways! It can be combined with the Florals Through the Year Collection to add numbers to calendar pages or the numbers can be used to create personalized cards, like I am creating today (plus lots more!).

FORTY

For my first card, I wanted to create a personalized number card for a 40^th birthday. I love being able to create these types of cards for friends and family. You can really match the design to the person’s personality! To make this card:

• Place the 0 from Bold Color Mix Numbers Press Plates onto the right side of the Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto Platen and hold down at the corners using Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Ink up press plate using Betterpress Black Ink.
• Place Platen on top and run through Platinum Six.
• Repeat the same process for the number 4, placing it on the left side of the Chase.

• Take the ‘happy’ plate from Sweeping Celebration Sentiments Press Plates and cut Champagne Foil to fit it.
• Place the foil onto the panel shiny side up, place the press plate on top, face down.
• Hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Place onto Glimmer Hot Foil System platform plate side down and heat up.
• Once heated, run through Platinum Six.
• Carefully remove plate and foil from panel.
• Repeat the same process for the ‘birthday’ plate.

• Cut ¼” off of the bottom of the panel and adhere to A2 card base made from Onyx Cardstock with thin foam tape.
• Hot foil ‘friend’ word from Hello, Friend Sentiments using Champagne Foil. Cut into strip and adhere to card with thin foam tape.
• Die cut flowers from Rainbow Slice Tunnel Etched Dies from Snowdrift Cardstock, the flower centers from Fruit Punch Cardstock, and the leaves from Peridot Cardstock.
• Adhere together using Bearly Art Glue and then adhere to card using thin foam tape.
• To finish, Embellish with Gold Mix Color Essentials Gems.

TWENTY TWENTY FIVE

My next card uses the same number press plates but this time for a Happy New Year card. To get the placement of the numbers where I wanted them, I created myself a registration guide. I placed the plates onto a panel of acetate and drew around them using a Sharpie Marker. When the acetate is flipped over it creates a guide of where to place the plates. To make this card:

• Place the registration guide (made in the process above) onto the Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Place 0 from Bold Color Mix Numbers Press Plates in place and ink using Teal Topaz BetterPress Ink.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto Platen and hold down at the corners using Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Place Platen on top and run through Platinum Six.

• Repeat the same process for the top number 2, inking up the plate with French Blue BetterPress Ink.
• Repeat the same process for the bottom number 2, inking up the plate with Wild Berry BetterPress Ink.
• Finally, repeat the process for the number 5, inking up the plate with Azure BetterPress Ink.

• Cut ¼” off the bottom of the panel and adhere to A2 sized card base made from Onyx Cardstock using thin foam tape.
• Press ‘Happy New Year’ sentiment from Bold Color Mix Numbers Press Plates using BetterPress Black Ink.
• Cut into strips and adhere to card using thin foam tape.
• To finish, embellish with Dimensional Black Enamel Dots.

TIP: I actually created this card before the 40 one. After pressing these numbers, I noticed that the edges were not as crisp as I would have liked them to be. At this point, I had two shims in place below the Chase. Before making the 40 card, I removed one so that there was just one left. I got a better impression on that card than this one. Definitely experiment with what works best for your machines.

SIXTEEN

For my last project, I wanted to use the coordinating number dies for the plates. These can be used to cut out the numbers that have been pressed but can also be used on their own too. To make this card:

• Die cut numbers 1 and 6 from Bold Numbers Etched Dies.
• Cut each number from Fruit Punch Cardstock once and Snowdrift Cardstock
• Using Blending Brushes, blend Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks towards the bottom of the pink numbers to give an ombre look.
• Adhere the numbers together so that they are two layers of white cardstock high, followed by the pink ones on top.

• Die cut flowers from Little Blooms Etched Dies using Fruit Punch, Waterfall, and Island Blue Cardstock for the flowers, Beeswax Cardstock for the flower centers, and Peridot Cardstock for the leaves.
• Assemble flowers using Bearly Art Glue.
• Adhere to A2-sized white card base using Bearly Art Glue, using the numbers as a guide for placement.

• Adhere numbers using thin foam tape (just where the do not overlap the flowers).
• Hot foil ‘happy birthday’ sentiment from Bold Color Mix Numbers Press Plates: cut Silver Foil to size and place shiny side up on Onyx Cardstock, place sentiment plate on top, face down. Place on platform of Glimmer Hot Foil System to heat up and once heated, run through Platinum Six.
• Carefully remove foil and plate from cardstock and cut into a strip using the die from Bold Numbers Etched Dies. Adhere to card using thin foam tape.
• To finish, embellish with Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems.

I love that you can use press plates to both press and hot foil! It adds so much more possibilities to not only using them but to your project designs too! Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

OTHER SUPPLIES

Thin foam tape, Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.