Today’s project is a gift for a friend. I started out with plain card but quickly abandoned that idea in favour of the Perennial Essence 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. Before too long I had a really pretty gift card holder, and most of what I used was from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalogue. It reminded me that with the focus on the new Holiday Catalogue it’s easy to forget about all the other great products available. Do you do that too?

PRETTY PERENNIAL ESSENCE

I started by creating the basic gift card holder from a 3″ x 7″ piece of paper from the Perennial Essence DSP. This style of gift card holder is really easy to make as I showed in this video.

To help you here’s the diagram showing the scoring and cutting lines for this gift card holder.

TIP – When using DSP just make sure not to press too hard when you score the lines or you may tear the paper. You may also find you only need to press the creases with your fingers rather than a Bone Folder.

EMBOSSED BIRTHDAY SENTIMENT

To create the sentiment I placed some Petal Pink Card onto my Stamparatus and stamped “Happy birthday” from the Here’s a Card Stamp Set using Blackberry Bliss ink. Then leaving the stamp on the plate I wiped it clean using a Simply Shammy.

Next I wiped the card with an Embossing Buddy to remove any oil and static. Then I stamped the sentiment in exactly the same place but this time using VersaMark ink. With that done I removed the card from the Stamparatus so I could sprinkle on some Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I tapped off the excess and removed a few stray specks then melted the rest using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high). Now I had a Blackberry Bliss embossed sentiment.

To make the sentiment look really special I finished off by cutting it out using a die from the Beautiful Boughs Dies.

SIMPLE EMBELLISHMENT

All I had left to do was the embellishment for around the sentiment.

Going back to the Beautiful Boughs Dies I cut two of the smallest branch from Old Olive vellum from the Perennial Essence Vellum Cardstock. Then with Mini Glue Dots I attached them to the back of the sentiment. Another Mini Glue Dot was used to add some loops of Silver Metallic Thread to the back of the branches.

Next I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to fix the assembled sentiment to the gift card holder. Then using one final Mini Glue Dot I added a flower from the Bird Ballad Trinkets to the sentiment and I was done.

Oh I’m so happy with how this gift card holder turned out, and I’m sure my friend will love it too.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Beautiful Boughs Dies in a bundle with the coordinating Peaceful Boughs Stamp Set. This saved me 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I didn’t use that stamp set today, but I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to explore this option.