Bon Voyage Cards

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Bon Voyage Cards can be made to fit the occasion. Here are some to inspire you.

"bon voy·age (bôɴˌ vwä-yäzhˈ) interjection Used to express farewell and good wishes to a departing traveler".
~yourdictionary.com

Bon Voyage Cards are always appropriate when someone is going away on a trip or moving, don't you think? This ship card came together very quickly for a borthday, so I decided to adapt it for a friend who was going on a cruise.

The card base is a folded half sheet of Basic White cardstock.

The background is some designer series paper I had. I kind of reminded me of ships and water. The reverse side of the red designer series paper had blues in it, again a water reminder to me. So I kept a strip to make an embellishment under the bottom of the ship image. I used a Stampin' Write! red marker to colour the centres of the motifs red.

Then I stamped the ship image in a navy ink on Basic White cardstock. I mounted the ship image on a mat of Pumpkin Pie cardstock, then on one of a navy cardstock. I made each of the layers abut 1/4cm larger than the last one.

The little enamel dots seemed to suit the card so I put one in each corner of the Basic White cardstock.

The ship with its mats was popped up with Mini Stampin' Dimensionals.

I changed the tag greeting to a Bon Voyage message and popped it up on Mini Stampin' Dimensionals too.

I stamped a Bon Voyage greeting inside and voila! The card was ready to wish a friend well on her ocean voyage.

She appreciated it!

How appropriate that image of the ship is for sending someone off on a special trip! Bon Voyage Cards make people feel special, help them to see they will be missed even though they may be going away to relax and have a lovely time.

Of course there are others reasons for going away - for a season, to move to another home, to work somewhere different. Having a few ideas for how to approach this type of hand made greeting card may be useful to you for these purposes.

I even think cards are appropriate for students moving away from home to study, or to join the armed services. Let's face it, you can give a handmade card on just about any transition in life!

I often practise what I preach :)

For example, to farewell someone who had just joined the Army, I made the following card.

I thought about the font, embellishments and colours to make them fit in with the theme of joining the armed forces. 

It was fun to make this card and I did get a good response from the young son I made it for. He was sure surprised, but he said it was a good surprise.

One Way to Make Bon Voyage Cards:

I'll walk you through the steps I took to create this Army card.

First, here are the Stampin' Up! supplies and other materials I used:

Inks:

• Old Olive
• Not Quite Navy(retired, so choose another navy shade)
  
• So Saffron (retired, so choose another yellow shade)
  

Cardstock:

• Soft Suede
• Basic White
• Designer series paper

Rubber Stamps:

• Schoolbook Serif Alphabet (retired, so choose another alphabet stamp set and/or dies)
  

Tools & extra elements:

• Colour Spritzer
• Stampin' Write Markers
• Black journaling pen
• Fine Tipped Glue Pen
  
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• Non Stampin' Up! Resin Thumbtacks, shanks removed with wire cutters
• Stitched ribbon
• Scallop edged envelope die (retired, so look for something you can create a scalloped edge with, or not. You can still use a straight edge instead)
  

I wanted to include a little cash gift for the new recruit so I made a pocket from the scallop edged envelope die.

After making it, I thought the envelope looked a little too feminine with the scalloped edge (I was giving this to a young man after all) so I altered the envelope shape by trimming away the scallops and adding a soft suede coloured, hand cut arrow to the edge of the flap, like so:

I attached the little die cut envelope inside the front of the card so that it would be safe. I also wrote some directions on the body of the envelope so there would be no mistaking it for a pocket.

He appreciated the money gift too.

Now maybe you will think of ways to custom make special cards to suit your own life occasions, the very next time you want to help someone celebrate their impending journey. You have the power! Lol!

And remember to check out the Cardmaking and Special Occasion pages if you need inspiration to make a handmade greeting for any other reason.

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