Does anyone else have an August birthday? As a kid I always felt like this was a non-ideal time because there was no bringing cupcakes in to school like my friends with non-summer birthdays did, and often people would be away on holiday. But as an adult, I love it! Celebrating with delicious food and my favorite people on a patio watching the sunset over the ocean? Sign me right up!
Last week I was doing exactly that with some friends, who gifted me an orchid. The next time I went into my craft room, I realized I still hadn’t made anything with the Layered Orchid die set from the most recent Essentials by Ellen release, so I decided to change that. If you’re ever not in the mood for stamping but really want to use up some of your cardstock scraps, the cards I’m about to share are a great way to do it!
The color palette I chose was one I swatched out a while back but also hadn’t had a chance to use. The cardstock picks were:
- Concord & 9th Peacock
- Concord & 9th Sea Glass
- Concord & 9th Honeysuckle
- Hero Arts Papaya
- The Stamp Market Bubble Gum
- The Stamp Market Blush
I did all my die cutting first, cutting out far more orchid pieces than I needed because I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to lay them out yet (and leftovers are never a bad thing!) I assembled them with liquid glue, then cut two A2 panels from Blush cardstock for my backgrounds. You can fit about 4 orchids (with their leaves) on this amount of space, so I arranged them randomly, adhered them with double-sided tape, and trimmed off the bits that hung over the edges.
For the sentiments, I reached into my stash of pre-made strips and pulled out a Happy Birthday and Thank You So Much, embossed on Honeysuckle cardstock. I layered these up on other leftover blank sentiment strips to give them a bit more dimension, then adhered them to the card panels and mounted each on a white A2 card base.
Lastly, you may have heard that the fabulously talented and incredible Ellen Hutson is retiring, which means there’s a huge sale happening in the shop! Depending on when you’re reading this, there may still be some fantastic deals left, which you can find here. Enjoy!
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