Handmade Family Card with Kindred Stamps – March Challenge Entry

📖 The Backstory

So listen—I love Kindred Stamps. Like, love-love. I’ve posted several Kindred Stamps sets in my cards so far, but y’all don’t even know how many more I have to use! When I saw on the fan Facebook group that the March Card Challenge theme was “Family,” I knew I wanted to participate… but I didn’t know when or how I was going to pull it off.

Enter: me, making a card at the last second (I literally pressed post with an hour in March to spare) with frazzled I-have-been-only-working-on-my-website-for-days energy.

I used the Family is Forever Kindred Stamps set for this handmade family card; I was thinking about using Motel Family, but decided with the upcoming MouseTM live action movie coming out, I would grab this instead. Plus, I might be able to use it as a birthday card for a little blue alien-obsessed friend! Then I grabbed the matching cut files from Kindred’s website for a couple bucks because I f**king hate fussy cutting—I’m bad at it and I will not suffer for my craft THAT much! Truly, nothing makes me question my life choices faster than trying to cut around tiny character ears.

This is also why I love digital stamps! All of mine come with pre-outlined PNGs options, so you don’t have to match up a separate cut file, create your own outline (though I can show you how to do that too!), or do the fussy-cutting dance of doom. It’s drag, drop, and cut… no swearing required.

Fussy cutting rant aside, I used my Cricut to cut out the outlines, then threw them all in my MISTI to try out some precise stamping within the outline. Which…I failed at, but I am embracing the chaos and calling it “whimsical charm.”

✂️ Crafting the Diagonal Flap Card Base

This is an A2 diagonal double-flap layout—super easy once you know how, but still looks fancy. I didn’t sketch a plan ahead of time (because of course not), so I just kind of… went for it. 🙃

I used the 6×6″ HeroArts Leafy Bold Prints stamp and a combination of Simon Says Stamp Ink, Colorbox Ink, and Close to my Heart Ink to create a gradient for one of the panels, then let a gorgeous piece of Recollections patterned paper do the rest of the design heavy lifting.

🎨 Coloring: Skin Tones & Minor Existential Crises

I used my Ohuhu markers to color the characters, which normally goes pretty smooth, but I struggled a bit with hair and skin tones. I feel like hair and skin tones in particular are very “just trust the process” because it all looks absolutely wild until the ink is all settled. On this one, I thought I ruined the girl’s hair because I added white highlights to see if I could make it look shinier and that was baaaaaad. But then I colored over it with the lightest color I had grabbed for her hair and it looks so good now!

🧠 Coloring took a little longer than expected, but considering I finished this whole card in about 1.5 hours, I’m counting it as a speedrun. Most of my cards take 3–4 hours because I… do not plan things.

🧩 Finishing Touches

Once everything was colored, I attached the characters and an additional flower with foam tape for dimension and used my MISTI to stamp the “Ohana” sentiment.

📸 Photo 5: Back of Lilo with foam tape
📸 Photo 6: Final card image (edited version with watermark)

💬 Final Thoughts: Family is Crafting at the Last Minute

This card might’ve been a whirlwind, but it’s full of heart. I had fun, I made something cute, and I got to support a small business that brings me joy!

Thanks for hanging out in my little cardmaking corner of the galaxy. Until next time—may your cuts be clean, your tape runners full, and your fussy cutting entirely someone else’s problem. 💫

With tropical hugs and paper love,

Breanna

PS, if you like the idea of having adorable stamps with precise cuts, no die cutting or fussy cutting, check out my Digital Stamps!