Birthday Wishes

This card was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest, and have on my "Cards ideas I want to try" board.  When I looked at the basic sketch and elements of the card, I saw that it was not anything too elaborate.  Some basic rectangle shapes, some ribbon and an embellishment.

I started out with a 8 1/2 x 11" natural color of cardstock that I cut in half.  I then took those two halves and folded them in half.  This gave me two cards that fit into some envelopes I had.  I have started to use this method a lot for cardmaking . . . cutting one piece of cardstock in half and then creating two cards out of it at once.  As long as I am making one, I might as well just make two and have an extra ready for when I need a card but don't have time to make one.

In the photo above you can see the half of the cardstock, then the other half folded over, and how that will fit perfectly into the small envelopes I have.

Next I found some papers that I liked that had the same color family in them . . . green and blue.  I also grabbed some blue ink.  

Then I cut a strip of each of the patterned papers.  The size does not really matter all that much, but these were around 2 1/2" wide.

Then I cut those strips into rectangles, rounded the corners, and inked around the edges.  The upper rectangles have the inking on the edges, while the lower ones do not in the photo above, just so you can see how inking the edges makes the shape "pop" more.

Then I cut a strip of paper that was just a slightly lighter color of cream than the base of the card, and cut the blue paper just a little wider than that.  Trim them down and I have two sentiment tags to add to the cards.

After I stamped the Birthday Wishes sentiment in blue ink, I also used some Viva Decor in a copper color to dot the corners of this piece.  The picture above shows one with and one without the Viva Decor dots.

As I was layering all of the pieces together I decided it needed a little something more, so I cut a tag shape from the rhinestone sticker sheets from The Buckle Boutique, and tied some ribbon from 3 Girl Jam through the tag.  I love this ribbon!  It is a soft cream color, and has hints of  green and brown in it.  Since it is hand dyed, no two ribbons are the same!

And let's talk about the rhinestone sticker sheets for a second . . . these amazing sheets can be cut with a scissors, craft knife or a die cutting machine.  I cut the one for this project with my Sizzix Big Shot and one of the steel rule dies.  You will be amazed at how easily the rhinestone sticker sheets cut with the Sizzix Dies!  Don't believe me?  Watch this video!