Happy Birthday Wishes

I have been working madly on holiday cards for our personal use, Send a Smile 4 Kids, & the Caring Hearts Card Drive. In the midst of all that, I decided to make a birthday card to send to SAS4Kids. Creative Knockouts Challenge #220, "Border Time," inspired my design.

I'll be the first to admit, this card was a struggle to pull together! I knew I wanted to use the "Stitched Tabs" dies from Pretty Pink Posh for my greeting. I initially had a landscape design in mind, but that ended up not working. So I rotated my design 90 degrees, and made it a portrait orientation.

I die cut the 3 tabs from 140 lb. watercolor paper. I inked them with Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, & Worn Lipstick Distress inks. After spritzing them with water from my Distress Sprayer, I let that sit for several seconds, then blotted up the water/ink.

For the greeting, I used the "happy" & "wishes" from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Script Birthdays" with the "birthday" from one of the "Mice Wishes" stamps from Stampendous. I stamped each word on its corresponding tab with Delicata Black Shimmer ink.

I adhered a strip of plaid patterned paper from my scrap stash to the bottom of my white A2 card base. I used a panel of yellow cardstock to go behind all my elements, and arranged my tab border strips on that. I stamped several balloons on patterned paper scraps using 2 of the stamps from Winnie & Walter's "The Party" set, again with Black Shimmer ink. I fussy cut those out, and placed them on my card panel.

I felt I didn't have quite enough balloons, but didn't want to throw more patterns into the mix. So I stamped 3 balloons with Worn Lipstick & Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks, using a solid balloon stamp from "The Party," stamped the outlines around them, and cut them out. Finally, I glued all my balloons to my panel with liquid glue.

To finish my card, I used a black fine-tip pen & a T-square ruler to draw the balloon strings. I adhered my panel to my card base & cut off the excess that overhung the edges. Despite my struggles, I think this card came out pretty well.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Send a Smile 4 Kids: "Anything Goes 4 Kids"
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"
613 Avenue Create #203: "Anything Goes"