Birthday Cards

Some great folks and I made a set of birthday the other afternoon at a local retirement center. They were pretty easy on the fingers - nothing really tiny or difficult to work with - but they did take a while to finish.

Once we stamped the sentiments (and I used every birthday sentiment I owned!) we distressed both of the sentiment cards with Topiary or Moonstruck ink. The base of this card was a 10 1/2 x 4 card, folded at 6 inches. This left an inch and a half of the inside of the card exposed by the card cover. The celebrate sentiment card is 1 1/2 x 4 and fits exactly over the exposed area.

The card shown has the rest of the cover stamped using Heavenly Blue and Crystal Blue on the Shining Star stamps, but when I made it with the residents, I used some of the Topiary B&T paper from the Stardust set. I also sanded a 3 1/2 x 3 piece of Star Spangled Blue cardstock to use as an accent piece under the square sentiment. I also edge-distressed and inked the square sentiment before applying it to the cover. I added some Glitz and buttons and "bound" the card with some Star Spangled Banner organdy. The ribbon went through both sides of the card and I created a new fold on the front cover.