I did it again! I got a new stamp set and dies bundle designed to make one kind of project, and used it to create something completely different. This time it’s the Celebrate With Tags Stamp Set and Celebrations Tag Dies. You can probably guess this bundle is designed for making gift tags, however my first project ended up being a slimline masculine birthday card. It was entirely the fault of the bold “happy birthday” sentiment and the label-style dies. That said, I love how quickly this project came together.

SLIMLINE START

I must say that I had been sort of planning this card since I first got the Pretty Prints 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper Pack (DSP). This pack has six patterns chosen from the Sun Prints DSP pack, but they’re in four different colours. I used three of the colours on a bookmark a while ago and was saving this Evening Evergreen pattern for something special.

I began by using my Paper Trimmer to cut a 7″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Soft Succulent Card. Then with the short side at the top I scored it at 3-1/2″. After folding the card along the scored line I sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create my slimline card base.

Next from the Pretty Prints DSP I found the sheet with the largest design. Much of the pattern is concentrated in one corner and up one side and that was the part I wanted, cut as a 4″ wide strip.

From this DSP strip I cut a 1-1/2″ strip off the bottom across the busiest part of the pattern. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed this small strip to the flap of a Soft Succulent envelope from the Slimline Envelopes pack. Finally I cut off the excess paper with my Paper Snips using the edge of the flap as a guide.

Going back to my DSP strip I cut a 1-1/4″ strip across the bottom then trimmed it to 3-1/4″ wide. I glued this piece across the bottom of a 3-1/4″ x 8-1/4″ layer of Soft Sea Foam Card. Then I fixed the assembled layer inside my card base.

With the envelope decorated and the card base lined it was now time to turn my attention to the front. So from what was left of my strip of DSP I cut a piece 3-1/4″ x 8-1/4″. Then I simply glued it to the front of the card base.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

It was at this point I went looking for a suitable birthday sentiment. Because of the size of the card base I thought it needed to be quite bold. Then I noticed the new Celebrate With Tags Stamp Set I’d recently ordered. Among the seven sentiments and four images there was the ideal “Happy Birthday”. So using Evening Evergreen ink I stamped it onto a scrap of Soft Sea Foam Card.

Now I needed a die to cut out the sentiment and got up to look at my stash of dies, But then I remembered that I’d bought the Celebrate With Tags Stamp Set in a bundle with coordinating dies. Wouldn’t it make sense to look there first? I’m glad I did because the die I needed was right there in front of me.

After using my Cut & Emboss Machine to die-cut the sentiment I fixed it to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals. But I thought it still needed something extra. Because this was supposed to be a masculine card I wanted to avoid using bows or fancy embellishments. Suddenly I noticed a small straight banner label die in the Celebrations Tag Dies. This coordinates with a couple of other sentiments in the stamp set but I knew it could have another use.

So I found a scrap of Soft Succulent Card and die-cut the banner from it. Then I snipped the banner in half. Finally with a little liquid glue on the back I tucked the two pieces under the bottom edge of the sentiment on my card. That was it, my slimline card project was complete at last.

You’ll find the bookmark showcasing the other three colours in the Pretty Prints DSP in my blog post Pretty prints, pretty colours.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – As I mentioned, I bought the Celebrate With Tags Stamp Set and Celebrations Tag Dies in a “bundle”. Buying these two coordinating items using a single “bundle” item number saved me 10% off the cost of buying them separately. You’ll see I’ve included both options below so you can compare them if you wish.

UPDATE 2023: Sadly the Celebrations Tag Dies have retired and are no longer available from Stampin’ Up!