Neon colors are making a comeback, and it’s nostalgic for me. I loved the bright colors as a kid in the ’80s (neon blue was my favorite). When I see neon hues, I’m reminded of big pieces of jewelry, even bigger hair, shoulder pads and odd fashion all around. A-ha’s “Take on Me” plays in my mind, and I think of, like, Valleyspeak, you know?

Hero Arts held a challenge in July. The company offered three concepts for entry: a summer theme; a project featuring a technique that creates paper flowers; and a color theme of neon pink, neon orange and neon yellow. At least one Hero Arts stamp had to be used on each project.

The day I stumbled across the challenge, I had purchased a new Hero Arts stamp and really wanted to use it and neon colors for the contest. With a few days left to enter and ’80s hits running through my mind, I created this card, which also has a summer theme.

I had a lot of fun making this card, especially the “talk bubbles.” The best part? My card is one of the winning projects! I’m so excited!

Here’s how to, like, make it:

Make a card from a 5-by-10-inch piece of textured black cardstock (such as Bazzill Basics in blackbird).

Cut a piece of neon-pink cardstock to 4 1/2 inches square. Stamp a polka-dot background (I used a Martha Stewart Crafts stamp over and over) in black ink (such as Versafine in onyx black). Adhere, centered, to the front of the card.

Cut a 3 3/4-by-5-inch piece of bright-yellow cardstock, and adhere it to the front of the card, lining it up with the right edge. Affix a 4 1/4-inch-long piece of blue washi tape (such as Hambly Studios Screen Prints blue woodgrain from set No. 2) over the left edge of the yellow paper, starting at the top of the card.

Trim a small slit in the fold of the card, above the washi tape. I used my paper trimmer to do this.

Thread neon-orange and neon-pink embroidery thread through the slit and around the card, over the tape, and tie in knots just below the center of the card. If you don’t have neon-colored embroidery thread, you can dye white embroidery thread with highlighter pens.

Stamp an image featuring two women (my stamp is Make Your Own by Hero Arts; the company has the rubber-cling version available here) in black ink onto neon-pink cardstock.

Emboss the image with black embossing powder. Using detail scissors, cut the figures out.

Using the cutout as a guide, draw a “shadow” for the cutout on neon-orange cardstock and cut it out. Adhere the pink cutout to the orange shadow using dimensional adhesive.

Adhere this piece to the bottom portion of the yellow cardstock.

Using a computer program, create two “talk bubbles,” each 1 1/4 inches by 2 inches, with “I’d rather, like, be at the beach, you know?” in one bubble and “Totally.” in the other using the Cooper Black font, 12 pt., in black. Create a 2 pt. outline for the bubbles in black. (Or, you may download mine here.) Print them out on white textured cardstock (if your printer can print on cardstock). Cut out the talk bubbles and, using dimensional adhesive, adhere them above the cutout of the figures (“Totally.” will be on the right). Adhere bright-pink, -yellow and -blue rhinestone stickers in a vertical row on the thread, about a 1/2-inch above the bottom edge of the card.