Hello and welcome to the Stamptastic Friends blog hop for this month. This month’s theme is to share some of our favourite retiring products and/or new products coming in the annual catalogue. I love this time of year as it makes me want to make the most of my existing craft stash and grab any retiring products asap ! We are enjoying a sunny day here in the East Midlands so I am typing this up in my back garden. Here are three easy birthday cards for you to make at home depending on the time you have available.

Easy birthday card 1 – Purple Posy card base and Gorgeous Grape ink

All three easy birthday cards use the Pretty Perennials stamp set (which is retiring) and then different Stampin’ Up! colours. Purple Posy is one of the 2019-21 retiring In Colours and I will be sad to see it go as it’s such a subtle hue. The ‘birthday’ sentiment is stamped on and off with Gorgeous Grape. The ‘happy’ is heat embossed with white powder and then fussy cut out. Fussy cut just means cut out by hand rather than using a punch or dies. This is great if you are a beginner stamper and maybe haven’t invested in these items yet.

Easy birthday card 2 – Bermuda Bay

Easy birthday card 3 – mint macaron card with added ribbon and embossing using the cut and emboss machine

Now I hope I have inspired you on how you can take the simple design in card 1 and step up your project to something more advanced in card 3. Have you already got this set or can you think of a stamp set you already have you could make something similar with? I am including the product list below so if you to place your order before 30th April or whilst stocks last. Then please do go and give everyone else a visit in the hop list as I know they will be just as inspiring and creative.

You can see more birthday cards on my blog here

Product List – I have only included the basic tools so that you can select your own colour choices