02 May 2020

Topiary Anniversary Card

Using 'Beauty and Joy' stamp set by Stampin Up and some clever die cutting to make an aperture



I saw this technique done in a magazine several years ago and love how it creates a gap for your stamp rather than the usual matting and layering of your stamp. It's used just one stamp set to create the image and the background pattern.
Finished topiary tree card with die cut aperture

I made it to be an anniversary card but with the colours I have used it could be confused as a Christmas card ! I used a 10 cm high by 7 cm wide oval die to create the gap, however change the size of this depending on the size of stamp you decide to use. The possibilities are endless and is a great way to use slightly smaller stamps as most of the card is the stamped background.

Follow the below link to find out how the card was made



You will need
  • White C6 card base
  • Dark green card cut to 7 . 8 cm wide by 10 . 8 cm high
  • Scalloped oval die (10 cm by 7 cm)
  • Beauty & Joy stamp set by Stampin Up
  • Light grey, dark green, brown and red ink pads (I use stampin up ink pads - rose red, garden green, soft suede and smokey slate)
  • Small amount of red 3mm ribbon
  • Stamping aid (I use Stamparatus by Stampin Up)
  • Die cutting machine
  • Happy Anniversary gold peel off
  • Glue

  1. Using the dark green ink, stamp a set of leaves all over the green card background (I used the top set of leaves from the stamp set). It doesn't matter if you overlap them but try and get them so they stamp off the edge of the card (ensure you have some scrap paper underneath to protect your work surface
    Stamp leaves onto the green background all over and overlaping the edges

  2. Put your green card onto your die cutting machine and lay the oval die on it but so that half of  the die is not on the card as per the below photo. Run it through your die cutting machine
    Die cut oval so it half hangs off the right side of the green card

  3. Glue the green card onto your card base so it has an equal white gap top, bottom and left edge.
    Glue the green stamped card with half oval aperture to front of base card

  4. Put your card into your stamping aid and lay your stamps gently ontop to position where you would like them to stamp. I decided to stamp the pot first so once I was happy with the positioning, I removed the trunk and leaves of the topiary and stamped the pot with grey ink
    Gently place stamps onto card to see how they line up

    Used smokey slate grey ink pad and stamped the topiary pot

  5. Next line up the trunk of your topiary against your stamped pot and then stamp it with brown ink

  6. Line the leaves up and stamp them onto your card with green ink
    Stamp the trunk and topiary top onto the pot in the gap created by the oval die cut

  7. I then stamped 3 small flowers onto the topiary using red ink
    Using the little flowers and red ink stamp three of them onto the topiary top

  8. Tie a small bow with the red ribbon and glue it to the base of the trunk

  9. Add your anniversary peel off greeting to the card front
    make a little red bow and glue to the base of the topiary tree


Decorated the envelope with the half green oval cut away earlier

The half a green oval cut away in point 2 was too good to waste so I glued it to the front of the envelope and stamped little red flowers as per the topiary tree. I think it makes the envelope look really pretty.

Happy crafting X
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