Birthdays on the brain!

I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts that my son is turning 4 in a few weeks.  He is SO excited about it!  It is lots of fun listening to him plan his big day...its been a long time since I was this excited about getting a year older!  Today I booked the indoor playground where we will hold his party.  It is a great spot and perfect for parties where there will be a range of ages of children.  Anyhow...all this birthday talk has me thinking about making birthday cards, so, here is one I did that really took very little time at all, thanks to my Big Shot!

Simple birthday card using the Bring on the Cake set from the Occasions Mini

Close up of paper-pieced sentiment

Inside of card

Once again, I started out trying to create a simple card that I could use at workshops.  I thought this one fit the bill because it features the use of several sizes of circle punches as well as the Big Shot; however then I had the bright idea to paper-piece the sentiment from various patterns of the same DSP I used for the circles.  This was a great idea in theory, but certainly not something I could do at a workshop...we would be there for hours!  Regardless, I like the look of it and could always try this card with a different technique for the sentiment.  In any case, here is what I did to create this cute card...
Starting with a pacific point card base, I punched and then adhered several different sizes of circles from the Celebrations DSP.  I love this paper because it is suitable for just about anybody, which makes it very versatile.  After adhering my circles, I ran the whole card through my Big Shot using my square lattice embossing folder.  This makes the circles look like they are actually part of the blue paper.  Cool, eh?  I then stamped the sentiment from the Bring on the Cake set on whisper white cardstock and on several different patterns of the DSP.  I then cut out some of the letters from the DSP and adhered them to the sentiment on the white cardstock.  For other letters I just coloured them using my old olive, real red and pacific point markers.  I cut the sentiment in a banner shape, added a little bow in real red 1/8" taffeta ribbon with an old olive glimmer brad for some sparkle, and adhered it to the card using dimensionals. 
The inside sentiment was again stamped on whisper white cardstock using Staz On ink and then coloured using my markers.  I punched it out with my wide oval punch, layered it on a decorative label in the red polka dot patterned DSP added a real red glimmer brad and adhered it inside the card with dimensionals.

A quick and easy card for just about anybody's big day.  Now to design a Lightening McQueen card for my soon-to-be-four-year-old!