Circus Birthday Card

I was inspired to make this card by all the cool circus themed products out there, but had to make due with the supplies I had on hand. Immediately I thought of the cute elephant from Stampin’ Up!’s Animal Stories set – that was the easy part. Figuring out the ball and the tent was another story. 

After playing around with a few ideas on how to make the ball, I decided to keep it simple and just to use a fabric brad. As for the background, I was really stumped, until I watched the movie Coraline and saw the scene when she is watching the mouse circus.

Here’s how I got all those tent pieces to fit so well:

• Use repositionable tape to hold two pieces of patterned paper together.
• On the “reverse side” sketch the panels of the tent and the arcs where the ring and the roof begin.
• Following your sketch, cut both pieces of paper at the same time.
• Carefully separate the pieces of paper, alternating colors (you’ll actually have enough for 2 cards!)
• Glue the pieces onto a piece of plain paper, trimming away excess paper. I found this easier than trying to glue it onto a card base of the correct size.
• Glue tent background onto card.