Cruising Into Another Year: A Snarky Interactive Birthday Card for the Car Enthusiast | Featuring Taylored Expressions

Tune in to my LIVE tutorial on YouTube

Join me LIVE on Tuesday, September 10th, at 8 PM on YouTube as I create this card and share tips and tricks along the way! If you can’t catch the LIVE session, no worries—the LIVE Replay will be available on my YouTube channel and linked below.

My husband is a Volkswagen enthusiast with a deep passion for cars. While there was a brief Honda phase during the 'Fast and Furious' era, his heart has always belonged to Volkswagens. For the past decade, he has professionally covered car shows, showcasing his own car and capturing stunning photos of the competition. He truly loves what he does, and I’m incredibly proud of how far he’s come in his career.

To celebrate his 39th birthday this year, I wanted to create a fun, snarky card that highlights his love for cars while adding a playful ‘over the hill’ twist. I combined my two favorite brands, Taylored Expressions and Lawn Fawn, to craft this interactive card featuring the dynamic duo, Gus & Gertie from Taylored Expressions—a spirited dog and his loyal bird companion.

To start my card, I used one of my templates from the Card Sketch Templates download, which you can find HERE. I sketched out the design, keeping in mind the supplies I had on hand. In preparation for this card, I did invest in Taylored Expressions' Gus & Gertie - Ride On stamp set and the Another Year Older stamp set, while all the other products came from my existing stash.

I began with the background, cutting a piece of Bristol Smooth Cardstock down to 5.25" x 4". For the ink blending, I chose Distress Oxide Inks in Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, and Ripe Persimmon—a vibrant purple, pink, and orange combination perfect for welcoming the fall season. Creating backgrounds with Distress Inks is one of my favorite techniques, as it allows me to experiment with bright and vivid color combos. I often turn to Pinterest for color inspiration, searching for 'fall color combos' and then matching the suggested palettes to the inks I already own.

Since only the top portion of the cardstock would serve as the background sky, I focused my ink blending on that area. I started with Seedless Preserves, followed by Picked Raspberry, and finished with Ripe Persimmon. I blended the colors together, going back and forth until I achieved a smooth transition. For extra detail, I splattered some Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White ink mixed with water onto the background using a paintbrush to represent stars. I typically apply the ink to an acrylic block and flick the paint off the edge to create splatters, testing on scrap paper to get the desired effect. I set the background aside to air dry.

Next, I die cut the grass from Taylored Expressions Peapod Cardstock using Lawn Fawn's Simple Grassy Hillsides die, opting for the least curvy of the three dies in the set. I also die cut a road using Lawn Fawn's Simple Road Border die, cutting the 'dashes' from TE Potato Chip Cardstock and the road itself from TE Black Licorice Cardstock. I adhered the two pieces together with Bearly Art Liquid Glue and set them aside to dry.

With the background ready, I began assembling the card. I adhered the ink-blended background to the center of an A2 top-folding card base made from Neenah Solar White 110# Cardstock. I die cut some moutains from TE Toffee Cardstock using Mama Elephant's Snow Capped Moutains die set (minus the snowcaps). I adhered this towards the bottom of the card. Then, I attached the road to the grass piece, leaving space at the top for the interactive slider I planned to create. These pieces were set aside to dry.

Meanwhile, I stamped the Gus & Gertie car image from the Gus & Gertie - Ride On stamp set onto Neenah Solar White 110# Cardstock using Lawn Fawn's Jet Black Ink, which is alcohol-marker friendly. I colored the image with red, gray, yellow, and orange Copic Markers, adding shine details with a Sakura White Gelly Roll Pen. Once the ink dried, I die cut the image and started working on the interactive mechanism.

For the sentiment, I chose 'May you live to be so old your driving scares people' from the Another Year Older stamp set. To complement the sentiment, I wanted the car to do some playful flips as it 'drove.' I used Lawn Fawn's Slide on Over die set to create a wavy slider track. To make the car move across the card, I attached two Slider Elements from My Favorite Things to the back of the car die cut with super glue, ensuring the plastic pieces adhered securely to the cardstock. I die cut the slider track from the grass and road piece and placed the car die cut over the slider track, with the Slider Elements inserted through the track. Then, I attached a TE On the Right Track Disc to the other side of the Slider Element with super glue. Once dried, the car was able to move and spin along the slider track. To ensure the car had enough space to move, I added two layers of foam tape to the back of the road and grass piece before adhering it to the card.

Before attaching the grass and road piece, I took the die-cut portion leftover from the slider track and inserted it behind the slider, creating a seamless look as if the car was floating across the card. I then adhered the grass and road piece to the card and finished it off by stamping the sentiment from the Another Year Older stamp set on the inside using Lawn Fawn Black Licorice Ink. Finally, I added an 'It's Your Birthday' sentiment from my stash, popping it up with foam tape on the front of the card.

Check out the final card in action in the video clip below!

I hope this card inspires you to create something special for the car enthusiast in your life. It was so much fun to design an interactive, snarky birthday card that reflects my husband’s love for cars and gives a playful nod to getting older. If you enjoyed this project, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more crafty ideas and tutorials. I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to leave a comment or share your own creations.

9/10/24 8PM ET

LIVE REPLAY

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting :)

P.S. Be sure to join my LIVE on Tuesday, September 10th at 8pm to see how I created this card and pick up some tips and tricks along the way. You're welcome to craft along with me—I can’t wait to share the process with you!

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