Masculine Birthday Card

My uncle's birthday is this weekend, and I thought I would make a card for him. To be honest, most of my cards are fairly feminine, and I have a hard time finding an idea for the men in my family. (Usually because we often get each other "funny" cards). I decided I didn't need to try to be funny and would try to make a card for him.

I started with Stampin' Up!'s Sahara Sand card stock for my base, and added a layer of black to that, behind my front panel. I used four stamp sets for this card but they all came together nicely. For the Happy Birthday, I used the Hero Arts Make A Wish Birthday stamp set. The balloons are from the Simon Says Stamp Big Birthday Wishes stamp set, and the strings are actually little ribbons from the Avery Elle Cake & Candles stamp set. The presents come from an older mini wooden set by Katie & Co.

For the balloons, I stamped them overlapping each other, with three inks - Stampin' Up!'s Pumpkin Pie and Lost Lagoon, and Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Cornflower. I used Memento Tuxedo Black for the black (my favorite black ink). For the presents, I did have the Pumpkin Pie marker, but for the green and blue I had to match with Copic B23 and Spectrum Noir GT3. They aren't a 100% match but they are very close!

I used the teal WRMK Corner Chomper to round out the two corners without any stamping on them (the 1/4" side), and that finished off the card. I like the design of this card and can see myself using the layout again with other colors or different Happy Birthday stamps in the center.