It’s officially spring, and as expected it’s also snowing outside. Still, in my craft room it can be any season I want. Today it’s summer, and I decided to bring you a pair of birthday cards that I designed for our Canadian Demonstrator newsletter “Inspiration Canada”. I’ve been contributing project designs and articles for the newsletter for many years and was excited to create these slimline cards. Whether you fancy the pink version or the blue one they both use the Artfully Layered Stamp Set and coordinating Tropical Layers Dies.

THREE COLOURS, TWO LOOKS

I began both cards in exactly the same way with a 7″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Evening Evergreen Card. Then with the 7″ edge at the top I scored it at 3-1/2″. I folded it along the scored line and then sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. This gave me a 3-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ slimline card base, sized to fit the new Slimline Envelopes available from Stampin’ Up!

For the main background layers I cut 3-1/8″ x 8-1/8″ pieces of Very Vanilla Card. Next, using a Blending Brush I added patches of Mango Melody ink to both pieces. Then on one piece I filled in the gaps with patches of Polished Pink ink, while on the other I went with Pacific Point ink. From there everything else was pretty much the same…

From the Artfully Layered Stamp Set I chose the script image and stamped it multiple times onto the inked backgrounds using Evening Evergreen ink. Then with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I mounted the backgrounds onto 3-1/4″ x 8-1/4″ layers of Very Vanilla Card. Finally I added the assembled layers to the slimline card bases using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

For my coordinating feature I chose the large fat leaf outline image and Evening Evergreen ink. From the Slimline Envelopes pack I chose one white and one Soft Succulent and stamped the leaf outline on the fronts. Then I stamped the leaf onto the bottom left and top right corners on two 3-1/4″ x 8-1/4″ pieces of Very Vanilla Card. Using liquid glue I fixed these pieces inside the card bases and set them aside.

TROPICAL LAYERS

Now the card bases and envelopes were prepared I needed the Tropical Layers Dies. Some of these dies coordinate with images in the Artfully Layered Stamp Set although today it was the other dies I needed.

First I chose the fat leaf outline die and cut that twice from Granny Apple Green Card. Then I cut it twice from Evening Evergreen Card. Next I cut one palm leaf from Evening Evergreen Card. Finally I used the edge die to cut the long edges on a 1-3/4″ x 6-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card, before cutting the strip in half at 3-1/8″. These two pieces were now the perfect size for the sentiment from the Artfully Layered Stamp Set.

Using Evening Evergreen ink I stamped “Happiest birthday wishes” onto each Very Vanilla piece before adding them to the card fronts with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

That just left the leaves to attach to each background piece with liquid glue. For the blue card I started by tucking the stalk of the palm leaf under the bottom edge of the sentiment. Then I added the Granny Apple Green outline piece overlapping the bottom of the sentiment layer. Finally I filled in the leaf using pieces from one of the two Evening Evergreen leaves.

For the pink card I attached the two Evening Evergreen outlines as if they were falling. Then I filled them in using the pieces from the Granny Apple Green leaves. With the leaves finally in place, my two ‘same but different’ birthday cards were complete.

I love how these two cards turned out and they were really quite quick to make. Plus the ‘waste’ from the sentiment strips weren’t wasted either but ended up on another project. If you missed that you’ll find it in my blog post Tropical Layers spawned ric rac trim.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Artfully Layered Stamp Set and coordinating Tropical Layers Dies using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included both options below in case you want to explore this option further.

In addition, until the end of March (while stocks last) you can save 20% off the cost of the Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. The price of this machine is most likely to be going up with the new Annual Catalogue so if you want a real bargain, now’s your chance.