Summer Splash Card Tutorial: Beat the Heat!

Jun 19

Written By The Paper Artist .

Get ready to make a summer greeting card in less than 10 minutes!

This quick crafting project will leave you feeling refreshed and ready to beat the heat.

With this speedy tutorial, you'll have more time to splash in the pool and enjoy the sunny days ahead.

Let's get started on this fun and easy card design that's perfect for bringing a summer vibe to your greetings.

Depending on where you are located, it is most likely that you are dealing with a bit of a heat wave right now - it’s been “feels like” 43 degrees Celsius (that’s 109 F ) here in Ontario. I think these hot temps have been quite similar throughout Ontario and some of the bordering States as well. You can let me know what kind of heat or weather you are experiencing wherever you live in the comments below.

Inevitably my house is in a heat wave - out the window it appears like a gorgeous summer day, then you open the door to step out and it’s hotter than a $2 dollar pistol out there.

I used to think “ 90 degrees in the shade” was just a saying to mean it was hot out, however now I have experienced it!

Needless to say air conditioners are running indoors and it’s still fairly warm and muggy in my office! That being said I didn’t want to spend to much time in there today, so I knew my crafting for today’s card was going to be quick.

So I thought I would try something different today - something I have touched on a bit when I talk about the digital files from PolkaDoodles but haven’t really created an actual card for you in this format.

But today, I did!!

So we know the card is a different approach to quick…

Now I just want to sidetrack for a quick minute -

I get quite a few emails from you guys with thoughts like this “ I love your cards but I’m no good at coloring”, “your designs are beautiful but I don’t like to color” and pretty much the comments lead me to believe that a lot of you don’t necessarily like to color. And… that’s perfectly ok. Not everyone likes to color! And those of you who would like to and think you can’t color - it just takes practice, I don’t think some of you give yourself enough credit for what you can and can’t do.

However, lets just say you just plain outright don’t like to color, or you don’t have time to color… or it’s so blasted hot in your office that you don’t want to hang out in there and color…. That’s me!

Today’s card works out perfect for any of those instances…

It took me less than 3 minutes to sit in front of my computer and pick out a few printable images that I thought could assemble into a cute card. I picked an image, a background paper, and some tags/banners to create a sentiment.

This isn’t all that unusual from my everyday process when I am going to create something with digital images, however today I decided to use a precolored image.

You’re going to love the pre colored images and how easily you can create cards with them!!

I grabbed the images from the printer in my office.

Sat down at my desk and spent another 3-4 minutes trimming up the printed designs to the size I required to completing the card.

I used a postage stamp die to cut out the pre colored image to give it a bit of character… not that that little lad swimming with the sharks didn’t have character!

I adhered the chosen background paper to the front of the card base. Applied foam tape to the back of the image and adhered it diagonally on the card front. Then used a banner printed with “Ahoy there” for a greeting. I have a page full of banners and tags left so I can choose something to go on the inside of the card.

And that was it, I added a few blue colored rhinestones and some wink of stella to the water… and this card is just so cute!

Links for the images, paper and tags used to create this Beat the Heat card:

Rocco Swimming with the Sharks ( includes Black/white & precolored image )

Winnie Starfish Sandcastle Paper ( includes 5 printable paper patterns )

Winnie/Starfish Sandcastle Tag Sheets ( 2 full sheets of printable tags and banners )

Less than 10 minutes - a card was created and I was off to find cooler spaces and summer adventures!

I was a bit astounded at how fast the process was to create a card with a precolored image. However, now all I can think is - imagine how quick and easy it would be to create gorgeous Christmas cards!!