Thursday, April 8, 2021

Birthday Card | Pink & Main - "Life Is A Circus"

 


Hello Everyone!

Thanks so much for joining me today as I feature an  older stamps/die set, “Life is a Circus”, and this peek inside the Big Top! 

I decided to go “BIG” for this circus scene (7.5” x 7.5”) and began with a rough sketch, which allowed me to get the proportions right by tracing in my actual stamp images where I wanted them (see #1). I tightened up the sketch by using a T-square, right angle and tracing around the actual Pink and Main Dies (#2). I transferred an outline of this template to a piece of 100# card stock, die cut lots of strips of red & white card stock with ½”and ¼” “Sentiment Strip Dies”. I used these strips to create my striped circus tent fabric, the ½” strips were used on the larger main tent and the ¼” strips for the upper level (#3). I glued each strip down by butting them right next to each other, starting with my center line (#4). 


Once all of the strips were adhered, I cut the solid red layers and glued them down on top. I cut 3/8” yellow card stock strips and added turquoise scallop die cut pieces, cut from the “Blessings Slim Line Die”, on top. This gave me the horizontal accent bunting I needed to cover up all of the missing areas of my tent! I added these pieces on top and carefully trimmed the entire tent image from the cardstock base. 

 

I created the entrance by making a frame with the two largest sizes of the “Stitched Top Note” Dies – this reminded me of the decorative edging of a circus tent! I die cut 3 of these frames from yellow card stock and stacked/glued them together. I placed the smaller of the two dies onto the middle of the card front, traced around the shape and hand cut my opening  - the yellow frame was glued on top to cover the cut edge.



I created my circus ring with ovals cut from kraft and dark brown card stock using the “Layered Oval Dies” and stamped the sentiment at the bottom using the MISTI. I stamped, water colored and die cut my images, gluing one extra ‘blank’ die cut behind each one. I created small yellow pennants with a ¼” Sentiment Strip Die, strung them on baker’s twine and placed it horizontally across the tent – this became the tightrope for my bicycle-riding monkey, who was stuck in place with foam tape!


I ink-blended a spotlight panel with DOI’s, sprayed it with Shimmer Mist, trimmed it to match the shape of the card front and glued the circus ring into place at the bottom. I joined the two panels together with a paper hinge and popped the remaining images into place with foam tape and/or glue! 


WHEW! Thanks so much for sticking with me for this lengthy post! This project was definitely a labor of love but I was so happy with the way it turned out! 

 

You can always find extra inspiration on the Pink & Main Facebook and Instagram Pages!


Challenges:


Creative Craft Cottage Challenge #139 - Include an Animal


Creative Moments #212 - Anything Goes


Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday


Crafty Creations AG Challenge #420 - April


Through The Craft Room Door - AG April 2021


AAA Birthday - Game #24 A Shaped Card


Die Cut Divas Challenge - Let's Open a Window


Have a wonderful day and take care! Rachelle

9 comments:

  1. An absolutely brilliant design and layout,your circus tent a brilliant base for these fantastic images,hope all is well with you

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  2. Your skills never cease to amaze and delight me, Red!! You are the star of the Big Top today, my friend - but those characters sure are cute side-kicks!
    =]

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  3. Bright and beautiful - so creative and what a great surprise for anyone receiving this card. Fantastic work. So glad you joined us at Die Cut Divas for our aperture/window card challenge.

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  4. Wow! How incredibly spectacular is your card. Adore the bright colours and attention to detail. Thanks for playing at AAA Birthday, hope to see you join in with future challenges too. Stay safe and keep crafting!

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  5. Rachelle, this is absolutely amazing! All the work in sketching your circus, the die cutting, cute critters, everything. Awesome card! Thanks for joining us at AAA Birthday, hope to see you again. Tina

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  6. This is simply stunning! I can't believe you sketched the circus scene yourself, it's amazing! Thanks so much for playing at AAA Birthday!

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  7. This is amazing! So creative and stunning! Thanks for playing along with us at AAA Birthday Challenge. Looking forward to seeing your creative projects in the future galleries.

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  8. Fabulous creation! Thanks for joining us for our "Include an Animal" challenge at Creative Craft Cottage!

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