Thoughtful Branches Birthday

I know it's been awhile since I posted but with the hot weather we have been having, our house is HOT! The fan I have in my craft room is not enough to keep it cool in there so I have not been crafting. I am anxious to get back into it though so grabbed a little (sweaty) time to craft a birthday card for my sister-in-law.

This is pretty much a complete CASE of the card by Kelly Kent. It uses the Limited Edition Thoughtful Branches stamp set and matching Thinlits which is now available to order until August 31 while supplies last.

You won't want to pass up this stunning bundle! The stamp set itself is perfect for all year stamping with its selection of trees, trunks, and leaves and the included sentiments are simply BEAUTIFUL! They have used a lovely combination of script and sans serif fonts that can dress up almost any card whether it be casual or formal, and the sentiments can be used alone or you can pair up outside and inside sentiments.

Don't miss out on this extremely versatile set! If you received coupons for ordering in July, you can use them for your purchase of this set. Contact me to order it today!

I adapted the directions from Kelly to put them into inches and then proceeded with my card by cutting a 11 x 4.25" card base from Wild Wasabi. I scored it at 1, 2.5, 3.75, 5.5, 7.25, 8.25 and 10 inches. I also cut a strip that was 1 x 5 inches in length.

I folded the card on the score lines and then set the card base aside. Using the stamps, I stamped the tree trunk on Soft Suede, using matching ink and I stamped two sets of tree leaves on Sweet Sugarplum, one with Sweet Sugarplum and one with Rose Red.

I stamped the bird with Pacific Point on Marina Mist. Two leaves were stamped on Wild Wasabi, one with Wild Wasabi and the other with Garden Green. Three flowers, from the Best Birds stamp set, were stamped on Sweet Sugarplum using Rose Red. The sentiment was stamped with Soft Suede on Sweet Sugarplum.

All stamped images were die cut using the Beautiful Branches Thinlits, Birds & Blooms Thinlits, and the Layering Ovals Framelits. An extra tree trunk was also die cut. A scalloped oval matte was also die cut from Rose Red card stock.

I found the centre scored line of the card base and used my 1/8" Circle Punch to punch holes .5" in from each side. I then used my Stampin' Trimmer to cut on each side of the holes between them, leaving a slit between them. It is important not to make the slit too wide or the pop-up part of the card will not stay in place.

Using the 1 x 5" strip and the card base, I attached one end of the strip to the side of the card base (see photo above number 5 here for clarification) and then poked the other end through the slit that was cut in the card base. I used Fast Fuse to glue both folded ends together, sealing the end of the strip between them while creating the pop-up structure for the card.

I used the tree trunks and tree leaves die cuts to determine how long I needed the piece to be and how much to trim it so it would fit between the two tree trunks. When doing this step, it is important to determine the correct placement so that the flattened card will fit in your chosen envelope–mine fit into a standard envelope for a 4.25 x 5.5" card.

After using scissors to trim it both in length to taper the sides, I used liquid adhesive to glue the two tree trunks to it. The leaves were then also glued in place onto the trunk. Wink of Stella was added to the leaves and the bird was adhered.

With the pop-up set up, the leaves and flowers were added using Dimensionals. Wink of Stella was also added to the flowers. The sentiment was matted and also adhered to finish the card.

Side view showing how the pop-up is formed.

I'm delighted with how this card turned out and my sister-in-law loved it! I can see myself using this pop-up design for many more card designs in the future.

For further inspiration using the Thoughtful Branches Bundle, you will want to check out the Stamp Review Crew–Thoughtful Branches and the Thoughtful Branches Artisan Blog Hop.