Happy Birthday--with Cupcakes!

I was inspired to do this card by a previous one I did recently, which you can see in this post. This time, though, I took a different tack, using a border punch instead of stamping. I based the design on this sketch from Operation Write Home, which I rotated 180 degrees:

To punch the strips, I used Fiskars' "Cupcakes" border punch. At first, I punched them all from the dark blue cardstock, but realized that didn't allow any contrast between the strips. So I used only one blue strip, and pulled out the green, fuchsia, & yellow-orange cardstocks and punched them as well. I backed the punched-out areas with strips of a patterned paper from the "Take Note" 6x6" paper pad by Doodlebug Designs. It's subtle, but I think it adds a nice punch of pattern (pun intended!). I layered each strip on the light blue background cardstock, overlapping them slightly.

To help fill in the large blank space below the greeting, I wrapped some blue baker's twine around the punched panel and tied it in a bow. I applied a dot of Glossy Accents under the bow, to help keep it in place.

I stamped the "Happy Birthday" greeting from this Hero Arts stamp set on purple cardstock, then heat-embossed it with metallic blue embossing powder by American Crafts. I cut this panel narrower than the background, so I could add a banner look. I cut two small banner ends from the same cardstock, and glued them in place above the twine. Then I adhered the greeting panel over them, slightly offset towards the top, being careful to make sure it was on straight. I rounded the corners with my 1/2" Corner Chomper. Finally, I mounted the completed panel to a piece of kraft cardstock, adhered that to an A2 card base, and rounded the corners of the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Happy Birthday"
A Blog Named Hero's Challenge #41: "Build a Background"