12 Best Cardmaking and Papercraft Inspiration For The Summer Season

Oh, summer inspiration, how I love thee! Summer is definitely my favorite season so cardmaking and papercrafting with a summer theme just makes me feel a little happier than normal. Sunshine, beach, ice cream, fresh fruit, flip flops ... What's not to love?

There are a lot of fun card making ideas about summer that can inspire you, from the memory of a summer caravan trip to sunshine at the beach, to ice cream and watermelons!

Here are 12 of the best and creative cardmaking and papercrafting card ideas with a Summer theme.

Table Of Contents

1. The bright colors of summer
2. Summer holiday on the road
3. Wearing summer flip-flops to the beach
4. Launching the boat
5. Ice Cream on hot summer days
6. Low tide ocean vibes
7. Feeling the summer sunshine on your face
8. Eating summer fruits
9. Getting stylish with sunglasses

10. Tropical Flamingo vibes
11. Sunflowers blooming
12. More summer food
13. Final Thoughts

Inspiration #1 - The bright colors of summer

Let's start crafting with our first creative card idea! The bright colors of summer and sunshine are the main crafting inspiration behind this card.

Summer has always been associated with happiness and fun days in the sun, and I wanted to project that same vibes in this simple card (and all the other cards in this list as well).

So before you get started and create this card, search for some colorful crafting card stocks that you can use. It doesn't have to be new papers! I'm all about saving and being resourceful with my materials. So go ahead and search for scrap papers you've already used in your previous projects!

The paper elements were created entirely from scrap pieces of white and plain colored cardstock. The letter S was a wooden die cut that I already had and the word sunshine was written on with a brand new beautiful gold paint pen that I'd been dying to try out.

A beautiful layered card layout made from scrap papers!

Inspiration #2 - Summer holiday on the road

Memories of a summer vacation road trip were the main crafting inspiration behind this card.

This is a very simple card that will surely remind you of your personal travels. It is also a perfect gift to your loved ones who's planning to go on a trip!

To create this card, you'll need your background to be a simple layering of plain cardstock and patterned cardstock. The patterned piece is from a mini-stack with an Australian native plant theme and the mini caravan was hand-drawn with a black fine liner and brush tip markers.

If you're not into drawing, then you can also use some car-themed stamps on your card. This will create a more polished look on your card too.

Layer your cardstocks to create this fun road trip card

Inspiration #3 - Wearing summer flip-flops to the beach

Summer days by the beach wearing flip-flops is the main inspiration behind this card.

Something that I look forward to in my summer travels is strolling by the beach! I'm not much of a great swimmer myself, but just walking on a sandy beach with my flip-flops and exceptional scenery makes me feel calm!

This card gives exactly that feeling. Serene, and calm! Try to create this card when you're feeling a bit crazed with your daily life!

You can create this card using torn scraps of paper for the water and a textured gold scrap for the sand.

The simple flip-flops and the sun were a DIY printable, which I adhered with double-sided foam squares to let them pop out a little.

As a final step, I used a white paint pen at the top of each ''wave'' to add another creative touch. 🌊

Flip-flops on the beach summer card layout

Tear the edges of your scrap paper to create a lovely wave effect!

Inspiration #4 - Launching the boat

Given that summer usually means it's warm enough to hit the water, the main crafting inspiration for this simple yet creative card is a nautical theme.

I've really been enjoying crafting simple cards lately and this one was really easy and fun to make. You can also create this card to use as a tag. I imagine this would be best to use in a scrapbook page about a fun summer getaway.

The anchor was a DIY printable, ⚓️ which I looped a piece of cord around and glued down but the anchor itself has been adhered with double-sided foam squares for a cool 3D effect.

Crafting the background of this card is so easy. I just used a scrap piece of blue paper that I managed to save from my previous projects, and I gave it a bit of details by drawing squiggly lines on them with a silver paint pen (although it looks white in the photo).

A lovely summer card layout you can make in just a few minutes!

Inspiration #5 - Ice Cream on hot summer days

Ice cream and summer go hand in hand, and sometimes it drips right down your hand! 🍦

Crafting this card is really simple and easy! I just incorporated some ice creams in nice bright colors for a funky and sweet summer feel.

You can create this card using DIY printable for the ice creams and cut out scrap pieces of paper and cardstock. Really simple-looking card design and yet so pretty and eye-catching!

One tip when you're crafting your card is to make sure that your colors go well with each other.

This card is really simple but it's made beautiful by using different shades of the same color and another color which complements it!

Don't you think it's the perfect gift card for a sweet summer celebration?

Inspiration #6 - Low tide ocean vibes

Given that summer and heading to the beach go hand in hand, this card is inspired by the beautiful ocean vibes.

In particular, when it's low tide and the exposed rock pools reveal all the marine life hiding in the rock crevices. Crafting this card was easy. You'd just need to get some marine life embellishments and think minimalist and simple to create the look of this card.

I'm really enjoying using white space when crafting cards at the moment so I've left a lot of room to breathe in this design. Except for the bluish coral formation which I have drawn on with a brush tip marker, the other elements are all DIY printables.

You can also look for lots of amazing free printables online to add onto your projects like this and you won't be disappointed!

Summer card adorned with seashell embellishments

A greeting card that beachgoers would surely love!

Inspiration #7 - Feeling the summer sunshine on your face

Summer sunshine is the underlying theme for this card, which features the sun peeking out from behind a fluffy white cloud.

It's a basic card that even children would have loved to create! If you're busy preparing for the summer but would love to create a fun and simple summer card, this is the perfect card to do!

All of the elements in this card were created with scrap paper and cardstock and the words were created using a DIY printable and adhered with double-sided foam squares.

You can also use some stamps for your card sentiment and I imagine that would be equally lovely!

Inspiration #8 - Eating summer fruits

Eating chilled watermelon on a hot summer day is the best and something all children (or adults) do and it's one of the first foods that come to mind when I think of summer.

This card is super simple and will save you a lot of time crafting. With just some DIY printable watermelon pieces and both plain and white cardstock, I was able to create this funky card.

The trick in crafting this card is making sure that you pick a contrasting color so your watermelon or chosen card embellishment will stand out.

With simple cards such as this one, I also recommend using a witty card sentiment that will share the spotlight with your card design. The card sentiment are handwritten with a black fine-liner.

Use puns to add some humor to your card!

Inspiration #9 - Getting stylish with sunglasses

Wearing sunglasses to the beach in the summertime is the main inspiration behind this card.

Crafting this card is so much fun as I love how aesthetically pleasing it turned out! And you won't even need to use complicated card making techniques when crafting this card which makes me appreciate this card even more.

To get started, prepare a blue pre-made card base and add two strips of black and white washi tape down the middle for the glasses to ''sit on''. Like most of the embellishments I've used, you can get these glasses as DIY printables. Then adhere the glasses using double-sided foam squares for a 3D effect that will make them pop out of the page.

In crafting this card, you can also use a different summer item or a combination of many of them. You can use printables or cut outs of flip-flops, towel, umbrella, cap, or swimwear!

Card embellished with sunglasses perfect for the summer

This layout would also look great with mixed summer themed embellishments!

Inspiration #10 - Tropical Flamingo vibes

Given that flamingos are found in tropical and subtropical areas, the imagery really gives a summer vibe.

When crafting this card, I used washi tape as a border, handwritten lettering, and DIY printables for the other elements. The leaves were found on ''Pic Monkey'', the software that I used for crafting printables, and the two flamingos were an image I drew many years ago for another project that have been scanned onto my computer.

It's always a great idea to save the extra embellishments from your current projects so you can use them in the future.

A cool summer card using printables complemented
with some leftover embellishments!

Inspiration #11 - Sunflowers blooming

Sunflowers and the bright colors of summer are the main ideas behind this card.

Sunflower embellishments are a great addition to a summer-themed card. They represent summer so well with their vibrant and bright colors which makes them look like the sun itself. It's also awesome as the main card embellishment, with the sunflowers taking the spotlight on your card.

When crafting this card, I used scrap pieces of paper that were cut into 1cm strips. If you don't have a summer-themed cardstock, you might have summer-themed stamps that you can incorporate on your card as a border. This will work perfectly on your card as well.

The flower heads were a DIY printable that I cut out with a craft knife and adhered with double-sided foam squares. The card sentiment is handwritten and also adhered with foam squares.

A wonderful flower layout using bright summery colors!

Inspiration #12 - More summer food

Summer food is the main crafting inspiration behind this card with ice cream clearly on my mind.

I started crafting this card with a pre-made card base and the wood finish is a sticker sheet from the two-dollars store that I cut to size. The ice creams are DIY printables that are adhered with double-sided foam squares and I made sure to give them each a different, bold, and bright color.

The words are from a sticker sheet of various phrases which has been mounted onto blue cardstock.

Make your embellishments pop out by using foam squares!

Cardmaking and Papercraft In Summer

Summer is a great inspiration for cardmaking and paper-crafting with ideas surrounding sunshine, bold colors, yummy summer foods, and of course, beaches and ice cream. I hope these creative crafting ideas have helped you out in planning for your next fabulous summer card! ☀️

The summer heat is already here and it's the best time to craft your own summer cards to gift to your loved ones!

Planning to make some summer-inspired cards? We'd love to see your beautiful cards!

Happy card-making!

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