Happy Birthday, Happy Camper

Today’s card has already travelled to a girl who just turned 8! It’s not my usual style but it was definitely fun choosing the colours and cardstock to put this one together. The die sets are both from Penny Black and although they weren’t released at the same time, they are the same scale which made this cute little scene possible. One set is called ‘Campers‘ and the other ‘…is coming

The blue card base and the pink, yellow and orange cardstock was all from my stash so I couldn’t say what the colours are but the cool lined silver is from Tonic Studios. The trees are also a PB set called ‘Trio of trees‘ and I cut them from an alcohol ink gel print.

I tore a post-it note edge to mask some clouds as I blended broken china ink over the base. I’ve used the little truck/van a couple of times before; you can see those cards here and here. Today’s post features affiliate links to the following companies. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Foiled Fox & Scrap’n’Stamp.


Gel print pumpkins

Despite what the title suggests this post isn’t about gel printing, it’s about using more dies on one card than I’ve ever done before. I tend to use dies sparingly, not because I don’t like them, but because they are usually called in to highlight or frame some watercolouring. This time the dies are the feature and I used some leftover pieces of gel printed paper for the pumpkins.

On the first card I built up a background for the gel print pumpkins with a row of die cut trees and then a die cut picket fence. Each pumpkin is two layer as the original cardstock used for printing was light weight. I tried to find prints in pumpkin colours and found a couple of blue/greens, some goldy browns and a pale orange; I didn’t have a strong orange in the pile. The fact that one of the prints had stars on it was definitely a bonus.

On the second card I stacked two leaf pattern die cut panels to create a textured background then layered the pumpkins on top of that. All the background die cutting and card bases are either luxe textured white cardstock or a cheap cold pressed watercolour paper that I thought was luxe textured white until I placed them side by side and had to rearrange things a bit.

All the dies are listed and linked below and I made two messages with the same ‘golden delight’ sentiment stamp. I know I have other sentiments for thanksgiving but I can’t go past this one. For the cute little sign by the pumpkin patch I stamped one word, masked, then next word, masked and then the last one and wonder of wonders, it worked first go!

The layering and adhering of dies was a labour of love because I am just not great at the whole fiddly nature of gluing die cuts. When I imagined the card in my head it was way more intricate than either of these but it’s important to know your own limits and sometimes quit while you’re ahead!

Supplies