Marimekko Inspired Cards by Guest Joan Bardee

Today we’re thrilled to welcome guest artist, Joan Bardee to the blog. We love her style and we think you will too!

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When I first saw the new Casual Greetings stamp set and hot foil plate, I immediately thought of the ‘60s and ‘70s when fun “groovy” fonts were all the rage. Those were also the years when Marimekko designs dominated the scene. So I thought it would be fun to use the sentiments in Casual Greetings and make 2 cards inspired by Marimekko designs.

In case you are unfamiliar with the company, Marimekko is a Finnish design shop that’s been in business since the 1950s. Known for its bold, bright and colorful designs, I’ve been a fan since high school (a long time ago!) when its iconic “poppy” design decorated home furnishings, clothes, and just about anything else. Since then, the company has expanded its portfolio to include a variety of design types. But almost all Marimekko designs include the following elements:

• Bright, bold, flat colors. No shading, no ombre. No hand coloring.
• Color pairings tend to be all warm (pinks paired with reds) or all cool (blues with greens) with a pop of black and white.
• Repetition. Whether it’s circles, flowers, or strawberries, Marimekko is known for repeating the same image, often oversized, and not realistic.

My first card is a riff off the poppy design linked above. I stamped and die cut a bunch of flowers from the beautiful Painted Florals set, using Picked Raspberry and Candied Apple Distress Oxide inks, with Versafine Onyx Black for the sentiment. I wasn’t sure if the smaller designs in Painted Florals were meant to be the center of the flowers, but we can do anything we want with our stamps, so they became centers, with some Tonic Nuvo Crystal Glaze (never clogs!) to shine up the black centers. All the flowers and sentiment were adhered using foam tape onto an A2 white card.

TIP: It can be tricky to pop up images along the sides of a card and then trim the images to align with the side of the card. I’ve found putting the foam tape on the card, and not the image, avoids having to cut through foam tape. I’ve also had much better luck trimming the images with my Tim Holtz Tonic KushGrip Titanium Shears rather than using my paper trimmer.

I love how colorful and fun this card turned out!

For my second card, I wanted to try out the Casual Greetings hot foil plate. So, I unboxed my brand new Glimmer Hot Foil System, plugged it in, and hoped for the best. Was shocked to get a perfectly foiled set of images using the Casual Greetings hot foil plate and black hot foil first time out of the box! (I’m now hooked on hot foiling!). Now what to do with all the foiled sentiments?

My card was inspired by a new Marimekko strawberry design, called Mansikka, where the berry images overlap. To get the look I wanted, I die cut white cardstock with two of the Folk Heart Dies to make stencils.

TIP: Every die can be a stencil.

Then I blended 3 shades of Distress Oxide inks – Candied Apple, Worn Lipstick, and Spun Sugar – very lightly onto white cardstock using the two stencils.

So happy with how smooth the foiled sentiment is.

Trimmed the panel with a rectangle die from Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Dies. Adhered both the sentiment and the panel with foam tape onto an A2 white card, and added a few clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

That’s 2 colorful designs inspired by Marimekko. (I’m working on more…).

It’s been a real treat to guest design for the latest Essentials by Ellen release. I’m a huge fan of the product line, the shop, and of Ellen herself. Thanks to each of them. And thank you for taking the time to visit. I hope you are inspired to check out the new release and Marimekko’s designs.

If you’d like to see more of Joan’s beautiful work, you can find her at @dearpaperlicious on Instagram.

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