Happy Birthday x 2

Two more cards for you today :)

Our oldest, dearest and closest friends celebrate birthdays close together, just like my hubby and myself!

Chris' birthday was on 26th January and his wife, Cathy (yes same as me) her birthday is on 4th February.  Our birthdays are September & October, and we have similar food tastes!

We had a lovely catchup last Friday, wherein we sat around the table eating, drinking (only a little) and solving the problems with the world ...... as you do!

Anyway, here are the cards I made for them.  I'll start with the birthday card for Chris.

For a change, I went with a DL size card, in portrait mode.  I have been having a lot of fun with a new way of making my own backgrounds lately, so I used this lovely green & gold combination.  Inks 'smooshed' onto a surface, spayed with water, then place the cardstock over the inks.  The edges were inked with Dark Green to define the outer edge.  'happy birthday' sentiment stamped in Black Staz On and die cut layered with 3 layers to give it substance.  Balloon die cut from a scrap piece of Holographic foil cardstock, all mounted on a DL size card.  Die Cuts layered with 3D foam.  The string on the balloon was hand drawn with black fineliner.

Over all, I was quite pleased with the card and Chris loved it!

Now, onto the card for the Birthday Girl (which was the main reason for our get together).  Cathy is celebrating a 'big one' ....... 60!

I stuck with the DL size card in portrait mode, and used another handmade background.  For the balloons I created some text in Word, prnted on purple cardstock (Cathy's favourite colour) and foiled with gold, then die cut the balloons and actually tied up the balloons with black cotton.  Balloons placed in staggered layers, then Penny Black Hedgehog from 'Party Time' stamped and hand coloured in with Copics, cut out and positioned with 3D foam.  Little butterfly with a present stamped directly onto the front, hand coloured with Copics & Kindy Glitz added.  A final bit of bling added with some sequins.

I am quite pleased with the foiling and the bonus is that Cathy loved the card!

I am linking the above cards with the following Challenges:

Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes (backgrounds were made with inks & water)

Penny Black Saturday Challenge:  Anything goes/Something New  (new technique)

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes as long as it is birthday (oops, too late for linky)