you say it's your birthday, da nah nah nah nah nah

it's MY birthday TOO yea, da nah nah nah nah nah...





That's right, today I am OLD (er) than yesterday! Really weird to be "this" old, b/c when you are 10, 16 years seem old. When you are 16, 21 years seems old but 25 or 28 seems REALLY old. Then, you are in your twenties and ANY number over 30 is almost too old to think about. And I am in my middle 30's, wow. Where did the time go??



But here's what is great (and funny) about life. My 30's have been far better than my 20's (and my teen years couldn't even hold a candle to my 20's). So, for that I am blessed! God has been very good and faithful to me.



So, I got some goodies from my friends and family, here is the first card I made with the some of the fun stuff I bought with a Joann's gift card (thanks Erica!)...

I got a "birthday" clear acrylic stamp set. It had the cupcake image (I masked it so I could stamp it in multiples) and the multi-candle image (again, used it twice, just masking the cupcakes). And, it had the sentiment as well. There was actually several sentiments and several images including the pink ink (stamp pad) that shows up well in the sentiment and middle cupcake and candles, and a clear acrylic block too. ALL that for $7!! What a steal! I also bought a "mini" acrylic block for a $1, and got some Ranger Inks Glossy Accents for $7. Only had to spend about a dollar of my own $$ (and that was mostly the tax... so I did GREAT).

The glossy accents stuff is kinda like CTMH Liquid Glass that I've wanted for a very long time (but I always wanted other stuff more) and this was essentially free for me, so I finally got it! The sketch came from Steph's stampin stuff which is actually from Taylor's cupcake challenge
I "flipped" the image (sort of) b/c my pink paper got a little messed up, and when I tried to tie my bow to hide it I tied it 'upside down' (if that makes sense)... so I just flipped everything over. I think it looks good though. The colored cs is all DCWV summer stack and the pp is DCWV butterflies and blossoms. The brown cs and ribbon is PTI.

My favorite part, though, is what I did to the candles and cupcake tops. I colored the flames with my copic marker and then added stickles for bling. I colored the sprinkles with my pink copic and then added the glossy accents. It dries to a clear, hard, raised (embossed) feeling. So, in real life this is one AWESOME card. Eventually, I'll give it away, but for now- it's my bday card to myself :-).

Enjoy!

Kristin