First Birthday card

I wanted to show you a card I made for a family member, who turned 1 this week. Here it is.

I usually struggle with childrens cards if I'm honest, so I was really pleased with how this one turned out. It is in Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue and Marina Mist. I used versamark ink to stamp the happy birthday background, then used it again on the Marina Mist cardstock and used white embossing powder. The image is also embossed in white, and was coloured using SU! markers. I'm afraid its from a retired set :-( I just recently go the decorative label punch, and I'm using it loads. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get it!

Top Note

I needed to make a birthday card for a 12 year old, and was struggling a bit to come up with an suitable idea. Then I remembered seeing someone used patterned papers, weaved them together, and then cut them out using the top note die. I dug out some old papers and tried it myself and was chuffed with the results.

The card base is in Old Olive, and the sentiment is the Curly Cute set, which has been inked seperately and punched out with the large oval. I also used up some old Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, although Early Expresso would have worked just as well. What do you think?