Happy 8th Birthday

My son’s 8th birthday is coming up VERY soon (how did that happen?) and I wanted to make a card for him for his birthday that showed his love of all things mechanical so I decided to make a scene using the Transportation dies from Taylored Expressions. To start my card I made a card base using Toffee cardstock and layered it with a bit of Granny Smith cardstock that I embossed using this Faux Letterpress Technique (that I LOVE). To do this I inked the Lot of Dots Embossing Folder with a light green ink that was nearly the same color as my cardstock (I used Memento New Sprout) and then ran the cardstock through my Big Shot to create a slightly darkened background behind my dots. I do wish my ink pad had been a little wetter so the color change showed up a tab bit more but I do also like the subtlety.

To create the scene I started by die cutting the photo frame using the Instant Photo Frame dies (I used the larger one). Cut a piece of Salt Water Taffy cardstock to use as my base for the scene and then layered it with Granny Smith and PeaPod layers cut with the Grass Border Die. I then used Poppy Seed cardstock for the road. The blue car is cut from a bit of scrap cardstock on my table (I have no clue where it’s from) and the red truck is cut from Cherry Pop cardstock. I added the windows which are cut from Salt Water Taffy. The little clouds are cut using the Sun & Clouds Little Bits dies out of Sugar Cube cardstock. I cut the word happy using an older incentive stamp set that isn’t currently available (sorry for the teaser). The birthday stamp is part of the same set as happy (sorry again). I cut the number 8 using Mini Caps Alpha & #’s die set out of Cherry Pop cardstock. To put it all together I use quite a bit of foam tape and a little liquid glue here and there.

Here’s a look at the card ingredients:

Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts (Taylored Expressions incentive set – currently not available)
Paper: Toffee, Poppy Seed, Granny Smith, Sugar Cube, Peapod, Cherry Pop, Salt Water Taffy Premium Taylored Expressions Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, New Sprout
Accessories: Lots of Dots Embossing Folder (TE), Transportation dies (TE), Instant Photo Frames dies (TE), Grass Border Die (TE), Sun & Clouds dies (TE), Mini Caps Alphas & #’s dies (TE), Think Happy Thoughts dies (TE – unavailable), foam tape, Quick Dry Adhesive