Happy Hippo Birthday Party

 Hello everyone!

The Improving Your Performance VSN Challenge at Splitcoaststampers inspired my card today, and this was such a fun one to revisit. For this challenge, we’re asked to select a previous card and then improve or change it—and I immediately knew which card I wanted to work from.

I chose a sweet card I made back in March 2025 titled Dotted Spring featuring Pajama Crafter Stamps, stamps and dies. I’ve always loved how happy and cheerful that card feels, especially with all that bright yellow. For today’s birthday card, I kept the same basic layout but made several playful changes to give it a fresh, party-ready feel.

I started with the Bare Branches Tree Die, trimming away a few branches and coloring it with markers. I turned the die on its side. Instead of a tree, it became a sturdy branch for the bird trio from the Where Hope Blooms stamp set to perch on. The birds' position mirrors their placement in Dotted Spring.

Next, I swapped out the kitty from the original card and stamped one of the adorable hippos from the Hippo Hooray stamp set. I also changed the sentiment, replacing Happy Spring with the Happy Birthday greeting from the same set and stamping it neatly beneath the branch.

Then it was time to party—literally! I experimented with different party hat colors and even tried a few patterned papers before deciding that bold red hats colored with markers made the biggest impact. Since the party hat in the Hippo Hooray set is quite tall, I used the shorter hat from the Toadally Awesome Birthday stamp set instead—it fits the birds perfectly.

After fussy cutting those tiny hats, I snipped off the pom-poms and replaced them with gold gems for a little sparkle. To finish off the celebration, I added small enamel dots in bright colors to coordinate with the background paper.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! You can find the stamp sets I used—and so much more—over at Pajama Crafter Stamps. 🎉