Tropical 40th birthday card

 Hello crafty friends! 

Today I’m sharing a bright and cheerful 40th birthday card made especially for my sister-in-law Donna, featuring the fabulous Stamping Bella Summer Bundle Girl and Puppy Hula Dance rubber stamp.

I started with a bold pink polka-dot background, layered onto black cardstock for a crisp border. For the centre, I blended yellow and orange inks onto white card and added a fine script stamp over the top. I love how that little bit of texture makes the panel feel lively without competing with the main image.

Next, I framed the inky panel with white stitched and scalloped die-cut layers. The clean white frame gives all those tropical colours room to shine and creates a lovely stage for the girl, her puppy and the oversized birthday greeting.

I stamped the Stamping Bella image onto smooth colouring card and used alcohol markers to bring the flowers, grass skirt, pink outfit and sweet little puppy to life. After fussy cutting the pair with a narrow white border, I raised them on foam pads so they sit proudly in front of the frame.

For the wording, I mixed several die-cut styles to make the milestone feel really special. I used the Julie Hickey Designs sweet pea numbers die set for the big pink “40” and its small black “th”, then added the black script “birthday” from a Crafter’s Companion die set. The Time for Tea Designs Hey, Hello, Hi Sentiment Die creates the bold layered “hey” across the right side, and two separate Crafter’s Companion word-die set called relations provided the pale yellow “sister” and “in-law” lettering along the bottom. A tiny pearl accent finished everything off.

My little tip: lay out all the large sentiment pieces before sticking anything down. They take up more space than you expect, and arranging them first makes it much easier to balance the characters and keep every word readable.

I had such fun combining the hot pinks, sunny oranges and tropical flowers on this one. It feels bright, playful and perfect for a milestone celebration. Do you enjoy mixing lots of different sentiment dies on one card, or do you usually keep the greeting simple?

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Crafty hugs

Rachael