Hi, crafty friends! Today, I’m sharing a colorful birthday card that I created for Papiria.

I started by stamping the word happy  from the Happy Birthday Words stamp set from Kristina Werner onto five different colors of cardstock from Concord & 9th. I used Lakefront, Parsley, Buttercup, Sorbet and Carnation. I heat embossed them all with white embossing powder from Ranger and stacked the letters for dimension, choosing a different color on top for each. This gives a bit of a rainbow look from the side.

I cut a white panel to 3 1/2 x 4 7/8″ and used the Balloon Party stencil from My Favorite Things to add ink blended balloons in the background. I used the same ink colors as my cardstock colors for the letters, and added a gradient on each of the balloons, concentrating the color on the base of the balloon, then fading as you go up the balloon. I adhered my letters staggered onto the stenciled background.

I stamped and white heat embossed the word birthday from the All the birthdays stamp set from Concord & 9th onto a scrap of Black cardstock. I added a few extra layers of cardstock behind it, before adhering it near the bottom of the pink Y.

I cut slivers of the same colors of cardstock to create some interest on the card base. I like the beveled edge you get from die cutting as apposed to using a trimmer, which is why I used one of the frames in the A2 Thin Frames die set from Kristina Werner for this. I put a scrap of each color cardstock along the sides of the die for a bit of selective die cutting. It was then super easy to butt the strips up against each other. I adhered the strips horizontally across the card base, added foam tape to my panel and adhered it in the center of the card.