Hi, crafty friends! Today’s the 17th of May, which is kind of a big deal in Norway. It’s our constitution day. It’s an all day event, with huge children’s parades in every nook and cranny of the country, followed by all the hot dogs and ice cream you can handle. We’ve been a country for close to a thousand years, but the constitution was signed on May 17 1814, so quite a while later. Today’s card is a very red, white and blue one, fitting with our flag. It could also double as a birthday card, actually, the sentiment works for both.

I used the Bouquet turnabout stamp set from Concord & 9th to create my focal point. This turnabout set has two separate images that you turn. The greenery is one stamp, the florals another. I used Sprout, Parsley, Basil and Evergreen inks for the greenery, and Bluebell, Capri, Poppy and Cranberry for the florals, all C9 colors. I’m loving the new 2026 colors from Concord & 9th, Capri is dynamite, it’s so awesome!! I cut my bouquet out using the coordinating die set and put the piece aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

I wanted a subtle background, and opted for the Stippled Plaid press plate from Pinkfresh Studio. I love this press plate, it’s probably the one press plate I use the most. I inked it up very carefully with Bluebell ink and ran it through my system with plain white cardstock to match the white cardstock I used for my floral bouquet stamping. I then cut the panel down significantly, added a mat from Poppy cardstock and mounted it on a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is the white cardstock I’ve used for everything on this card.

I popped up my bouquet using more foam tape and knew I wanted a die cut sentiment. Gratulerer med dagen is what you say when greeting someone on May 17th, it literally translates to “Congratulations on the day”. It’s the exact same sentiment we use to wish someone a happy birthday. I used the Gratulerer 6 die set from Papirdesign for the main part of my sentiment. I die cut four layers from white cardstock, one layer from Gold Shine cardstock from My Favorite Things and the shadow layer from Heavyweight vellum, also from MFT. I backed the gold one with one white, adhered it to the vellum and put the three remaining white ones behind the vellum, to give it a bit of dimension.

On a piece of Capri cardstock, I stamped a sentiment (have a fantastic celebration) from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS with VersaMark ink, sprinkled on Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and heat set it from the back. I always do my heat embossing from the back, it gives a much smoother result than working from the front.  I finished off the card with a few enamel dots from Concord & 9th in Capri, Bluebell and Poppy.

Gratulerer med dagen!