Happy Birthday Thinlits Dies

Hi, a few days ago I shared (on my Facebook page) that I had been colouring up a storm using the new Petal Passion Designer Series Paper (and how awesome is it that you can finally purchase it?! YAY!).  Whilst I was happy enough to just colour the paper, I knew it would look amazing on a card.

I used Stampin’ Blends to colour the paper and I have to say that end result is bright and vivid.  I would normally shy away from such a loud paper but I *love* it and I’m going to show you a little tip on how to subdue the colour if it is too overwhelming for you.

Here’s the card…

I cut the paper to size and mounted it on Basic Black cardstock.  Next, I cut a piece of vellum so you could still see a border of the beautiful background.   Yes, this is my tip – and isn’t it easy?! A panel of vellum is all you need.  I put this aside and started working on my sentiment.

I knew I wanted to use the big Happy Birthday thinlits die for the sentiment.  I also knew that I wanted it to match the colours I had used in the background paper.  Thinking that one colour might look too harsh, I opted for a shaded look.   There are two ways you can shade the die cut – cut out the die first and then add colour, or add ink to the cardstock and then cut out the die.  With the second option, I didn’t have to worry about accidentally catching and tearing any of the letters.  I put down a layer of the Daffodil Delight ink starting at one end and then working towards the centre.  Next, I took the Pumpkin Pie ink and sponged it from the other end towards the centre.  I made sure that I applied a lighter coating of ink as I moved towards the centre – I wanted a nice gradient effect.  I cut out a second sentiment from Basic Black cardstock so that I could ever so slightly offset it under the main sentiment.  The touch of black helps the sentiment to really pop! Before I adhered the sentiment, I thought it needed something else.

The “To You” sentiment comes from the Big on Birthdays stamp set and I love how it coordinates so beautifully with the big and bold Happy Birthday.  I used Basic Black archival ink to stamp the sentiment.  Normally, this ink dries very quickly and you can’t emboss with it, however, due to the slick surface of the vellum, it doesn’t dry quickly so you have time to add the embossing powder.  Just be careful as you can easily smudge the ink (both when stamping and when applying the embossing powder).

I used the fine tip glue to adhere the sentiment to the vellum.  Have I told you how much I love this glue?  It’s fantastic – plus the fine tip makes it so easy to add glue to small areas.    Since you can see through vellum, a lot of adhesives also show through.  Now, there are a few different ways you can adhere vellum, but for my card design, I was limited in choices.  Here’s my tip: use the fine tip glue and trace the back of the sentiment as this hides the adhesive.  I placed an acrylic block over the sentiment to hold it in place while it dried.  I also put the smallest dot of glue in both of the bottom corners of the vellum panel to tack them in place. You can *just* see a little bit of the adhesive over the yellow flower but you cannot see it at all over the pink flower.  WIN!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hope you have a great day!

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Supplies Used:

Listed below are the supplies used to create the above project. If the stamp set comes in different types (such as clear mount and wood mount) or as a bundle, I link to all.