Masculine and Feminine Birthday cards

September is a big month in our house for birthdays, and it seems to be a popular month amongst our friends and their children too!

For the weekend just gone, there were two cards to make, one for a preschool friend of my daughter, the gorgeous Charlotte, and one for my own dad, who turned the BIG 70 yesterday! Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad's card uses Lovely As A Tree (please, please Stampin' Up, don't retire this set, ever!) I have coloured the image using markers in Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke for the leaves and Chocolate Chip for the trunks and ground. It is stamped on a piece of Very Vanilla.

I used the same colours for the card base (Mellow Moss) and matting (Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip , Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke (textured), and added some brass Jumbo Eyelets and hemp twine, through a tag made from large and small tag punches. The greeting is from On Your Birthday.

The card for Charlotte uses the Window Dressing hostess set, and Candy Lane Designer Series papers. I have stamped the image in Stazon onto Watercolor paper, and used the ink pad puddle technique and blender pens to colour in. Colours used are Riding Hood Red, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, So Saffron and Pretty in Pink. I cut around the stamped image and then matted it onto a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock, before cutting out again. Because of the hand-drawn style of the stamp, this was pretty easy to do (ie, perfection not required!!)

The card base is Close to Cocoa, then there is a thin mat of Pink Pirouette. Over this is a piece of Candy Lane DSP. It is so easy to choose colours when the paper is there, already decided for you! I have inked the edges for definition.

To finish, I made a scallop oval punch out of Riding Hood Red cardstock, and used the co-ordinating large oval punch to punch out "Happy Birthday" from the Family Phrases set. I popped it up on Stampin Dimensionals and then added a tie of Vanilla tafetta ribbon.