Orange You Glad It’s Your Birthday?!
by Rachel Duong

February 18, 2026Animals, Balloons, Birthday, Challenge Reminder, Foil, Glitter, Masculine, Metal, Monochromatic, Rachel Duong, Scene, Uncategorized, Watercolor

Hi everyone, it’s Rachel here with a challenge and this month the theme is Monochromatic. Using one color, create a card in varying intensities of a single color. I chose orange–the adorable Poppystamps penguins beak and feet gave me the prompt! For information click on our Challenge Tab, I hope you join in on the fun!

To create my card, I die cut the Poppystamps Birthday Penguin and the Jubilee Penguin. I used black glossy cardstock listed in the supplies. Heavy white cardstock and orange 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock that can be purchased in the paper section on the Poppystamps site. It is well worth checking it out! The party hats were cut out of the orange and the tops are the Memory Box Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad metallic orange. I glued the pieces together!

Next I painted a watercolor background in varing intensities of orange. I had the best time playing with lots of water and pigment, moving the color around the page with reckless abandon! I let it dry, sized it down to a little smaller than an A2 cardfront and adhered it to an orange cardbase.

Then I chose glitter, metallic, orange, and white cardstock to create the Poppystamps Festive Balloons. These balloons are great because there are 4 dies, one balloon has a heart center and another a star center!

I die cut the happy birthday sentiment in white because I wanted it to stand out on the orange background. The die is the Happy Birthday Streamer Script. It also comes with an outlines die. It looks great both ways, I decided on the script only to keep it less busy.

I laid the pieces out and glued down the design I envisioned. I popped up the party hats to account for the layers under the penguin. Using white sewing thread I adhered one end under each balloon with glue dots and tied orange twine at the bottom of the threads to create a balloon bouquet! It was a bit tedious, another idea would be to draw the lines with a fine black permanent marker. Lastly I affixed orange Open Studio Fairy Jewels.

I love this Monochromatic card! I hope you join the challenge. If you do, try using a color that you typically do not use–so much fun and adds to new ideas and adventures! Until next time, enjoy your crafting time and I can’t wait to see your designs!