Happy, happy, happy!!

My youngest sister-in-law just turned 18!!

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!
The first birthday I celebrated with her,
she was only 8. 8, people! And now she can
legally gamble. I'm not sure how that happened.
Anyways, gone are the days of cutesy, little
girl cards and, yet, she's totally not into floral,
lacey 'mature lady' cards :)
What to do??
Well, it was tough figuring but, once
I started, it all just seemed to come together :)

Introducing...the 18 year old's birthday card:
It all started with that little snippet of ribbon.
I knew Michelle would love the colours, so I
went from there. I stamped the ledger in Old
Paper (when I purchased this stamp online I
thought, being a background stamp, that it
would cover the entire background of a cardfront.
Unfortunately, as you can see, it doesn't. I was
kind of bummed. I still like it, but I really
wish it covered the WHOLE background.
Do any of you know of a ledger stamp that
is truly a background stamp? I'd
appreciate any links - thanks!)

Pulling the colours from the Cosmo Cricket
ribbon, which I just stapled in place, I stamped
the word 'happy' ('So Very', a retired SU! set)
in Pumpkin Pie, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip,
Baja Blue and Kiwi Kiss. I punched the edge
with my spiral notebook punch from SU! and
layered some cameo coral cardstock beneath it.
The swirly flowers are a Basic Grey rub-on.
Generally I'm not a fan of run-ons, it just seems
silly to buy something that you can only use
once, when you could buy a stamp and use it
over and over and over again? But I picked
these up at a clearance sale for a dollar and
I do like how it turned out.

To finish things off, I added a Basic Grey
brad - which I've been hoarding for a year! -
but figured my sister's birthday was a
worthy enough occasion to break it out ;)
and a little snippit of matching patterned
paper to finish off the inside. The sentiment
inside says 'birthday wishes'.

While this card is totally outside of my usual
'creative box', I love how it turned out. I
especially love how it uses material from
four different companies (SU!, Unity, Cosmo
Cricket & Basic Grey) and yet looks so
'together'. It was super fun to make, and
I think I'm gonna stretch myself to do
stuff like this more often!

Thanks for popping by!