Needing a birthday card for a fun loving and jazz enthusiast gentleman who always supports concerts in the park, was the inspiration for this card.

It uses a variety of animals and scene dies as well as a pop-up bench by Karen Burniston. This was my first time using the Pear Blossom Press EZ-lights which are also available on the Karen Burniston website.

EZ-Lights:  To start the card, I had to plan out how the lights were to be installed knowing that the switch/battery piece had to be surrounded by foam strips and that I wanted lights on both the front of the card and inside the card. I don’t like to have wires going across the card-fold, so everything needed to be above the fold on this top-fold A7 (5×7-inch) card. (I also watched some assembly videos on using the EZ-Lights.) I made my front decorative panel and added decorative papers to the inside of my card base before poking the holes for the one light on the card front and two lights on the inside top panel.

Front Panel:  The front panel uses the fronds pattern plate cut from a dark green cardstock over a grass printed paper.

Lampposts:  These are cut using the street lantern pop-up die set using a glossy black piece of cardboard packaging which gives nice dimension as well as highlighting the embossed features of the dies. The edges of the lampposts I colored with black markers. For the lamp itself I used both clear vellum and golden parchment to allow the light to show through. (Assembly video)

Bench:  For the bench, I used the garden bench pop-up die set. I found a piece of glossy black paper that looks like metal, and I adhered it to some brown cardstock and then die-cut the bench. This pop-up is a glue-in pop-up, so I watched the assembly video several times to get the installation of the bench correct for this card. The monkeys are attached using foam squares.

Animals:  The jazz duo of a bass playing elephant and a giraffe playing the sax are from the safari animals die set with a beret cut down from an engineer’s cap and sunglasses from the three tiny accessories die sets. The musical instruments come from a die set from Doxie Craft Supply. The monkeys are from the monkey and lion die set. All the animals have stencils within the dies to add details like hoofs, eyes, mouths, ears and tails.

Bushes:  To create bush behind the bench, the large and small frond branches were cut from the landscape scene die set and inked with brown Distress ink. Three small fronds were used to cover up mistakes around the ground under the bench and for a decoration on the lower right corner.

Sentiments:  In order to turn on the lights two “Press me” labels were created -a yellow moon on the front and a green bush on the inside. The moon come from the landscape scene die set while the bush is the lion’s mane from the monkey and lion die set. A stamp was used for the “press me” stamped in brown ink.

“All that jazz” uses the mini alphabet die set. A strip of paper tape was used to provide a straight edge to line up the letters when adhered to the card front.

“Celebrate” and “Happy Birthday” are die sets also from Karen Burniston cut from yellow and tan cardstock.

This card is to be hand delivered, so no envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Mini Alphabet and Numbers – 1197
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Monkey and Lion – 1187
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Happy Birthday Shadow – 1179
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Street lantern Pop-Up – 1171
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Garden Bench Pop-Up – 1170
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Pattern Plate – Fronds – 1142
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Landscape Scene- 1141
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Safari Animals – 1127
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Tiny Accessories 3- 1095
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Tiny Accessories 2- 1076
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Celebrate – 1067
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Happy Birthday – 1030
• Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Tiny Accessories 1 – 1025
• Doxie Craft Supply – Musical Instruments Metal Cutting Die

Stamps

• Lawn Fawn –Clear Stamps – Push Here

Papers

• Colored Cardstock Scraps
• Black Glossy Cardboard Packaging
• Keep It Simple – Back to Basics – 12×12 Double-Sided Cardstock – Jade Collection
• The Paper Studio – Clear Vellum for Printers
• Hunkydory Forever Florals – Autumn Days Printed Parchment
• Park Lane – A7 White Card and Envelope

Pens & Inks

• Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
• Pigma Micron 05 – Brown
• Sharpie Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black
• Sharpie Permanent Marker –Fine Point – Black and Light Green
• Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Inks – Vintage Photo
• Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso

Adhesives

• Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
• Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
• Scrapebook.com – Double-Sided Permanent Tape ¼-Inch Wide
• Fun Stampers Journey – Journey Dots
• Stampin’ Up – Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals (Foam Squares)
• Queen & Co. – Foam Refill Scraps (Foam Tape)

Miscellaneous

• Pear Blossom Press – EZ Light – set of 3
• Quickstik Tool
• Die Cutting Machine
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Sponge Dauber
• Paper Tape
• Stamping Block