In case you were waiting, the Trucking Along Punch is now back in stock, which means the bundle is also now available again. In order to showcase this cute stamp set and punch I decided to create a more contemporary Christmas card for today’s blog post. Other than a red truck I had no real plan, and sometimes that means the finished project is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. In the end it was a large die-cut circle that pulled it all together.

TRUCKING BUNDLE

I knew I wanted a red truck so I began by taking the outline and solid images from the stamp set. First, using Cherry Cobbler ink I stamped the outline onto a scrap of Very Vanilla Card. Then I stamped it in the bottom right-hand corner on the front of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope. Finally I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card and stamped the outline in the bottom right-hand corner of that.

Next I chose the Sweet Strawberry ink pad and stamped the solid truck body onto each outline image. This only needed me to look through the clear photopolymer stamp to line up the images as I stamped.

For the wheels on the trucks I used a light Pebbled Path Stampin’ Blends alcohol marker. Then with the dark Stampin’ Blends I coloured the centre of the hub caps and the tyres. Before moving on I needed to add some ‘ground’ beneath the trucks on the envelope and large layer. I did this very simply with some horizontal scribbles using the light Pebbled Path Stampin’ Blends.

Now I was ready to cut out the truck stamped on scrap card using the coordinating Trucking Along Punch.

The Trucking Along Stamp Set is what’s known as a ‘builder’ set. This means that it’s full of small images that can be combined to create a unique image or scene. So I went back to the stamp set and selected the two parts for the Christmas tree. Using Mossy Meadow ink I first stamped the outline image onto a scrap of Very Vanilla Card. Then I stamped the solid image over the top in Old Olive ink.

There’s no punch or dies for the tree but it didn’t take long to cut it out with Paper Snips. That also meant that I could leave a little ‘tab’ along the bottom edge. This allowed me to attach the tree to the back of the punched truck with a little Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

CHRISTMAS MOON?

With the trucks complete I began to think about the rest of the card. I first chose the “Wishing you a festive Christmas” sentiment from the Trucking Along Stamp Set. As I considered how I’d put in on the card I decided to go for an over-sized piece of card. So I die-cut some Very Vanilla Card using the largest circle from the Stylish Shapes Dies. Then I stamped the sentiment towards the top with Cherry Cobbler ink.

With that done I attached the assembled truck to the bottom edge of the circle with Stampin’ Dimensionals. For a little shine I also added three small silver embellishments from the Festive Pearls pack.

From there the card came together really quickly. I knew I wanted a dark background to really draw the eye to the truck and sentiment. However for some reason I pulled out some Basic Black Card to create the card base rather than, say, a blue.

After cutting and scoring the card I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then I glued the large Very Vanilla layer on the inside to provide somewhere to write a personal message.

Finally I put Stampin’ Dimensionals behind the part of the truck that was not attached to the assembled sentiment. Then with liquid glue on the back of the die-cut circle I fixed it to the card front and my project was complete.

It was only as I was cleaning and packing away the stamp set that I noticed there was a solid stamp for the truck wheels. Oh well, that gives me a great excuse to make another project (as if I needed one!).

PRODUCT LIST

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES – The Trucking Along Stamp Set and punch are part of the Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives range. These items are subject to availability and may be discontinued without warning.

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Trucking Along Stamp Set in a bundle with the coordinating Trucking Along Builder Punch. Buying the two items using the single ‘bundle’ item number saved me 10% off the cost of buying them separately. I’ve included both options below in case you want to explore these further.