Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my awesome Dad's birthday.  He's off celebrating in much warmer weather than you can find around here, so we'll celebrate this big one when he gets back home later this spring.  I did send him this card in the mail.  (Sorry that it got sent late, Dad.  Enjoy birthday SEASON!)

Since he loves to travel, I started with a piece of B&T from the Wanderful collection as my card base and cut out this great card with my CTMH/Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge.  It does all the work! To decorate the front cutouts, I started by measuring the height and width of the candle section, then cut a piece of the blue polka dot B&T to fit.  (I also cut a liner of Colonial White card stock for each inside panel of the card.)  Here's a tip for those glittery candle flames: lay the liner with the candle strip in place on the inside of the card.  Use a pencil to trace the bottom outline of the flames.  Then, cut pieces of gold shimmer trim into pieces that are a little taller than the flames.  (Just eyeball them.)  Finally, place each piece of shimmer trim so that they cover the pencil lines.  {Honestly, this was way easier than the glitter candles I made on Traci's card!}

The inside cuts were made with the same Artfully Sent key.  (It was easy to flip the 70 with my Cricut function to use the same sheet of 12"x12" paper for all of the cuts and so that I could have the backside of the B&T show.)  The "Happy" and "th" were stamped with stamps that come with the Artfully Sent cartridge, and the little airplane from the Lifting Spirits stamp set is a tribute to him as a pilot.  A little washi tape made the inside a little more fun!

Here we are at Christmas: Dad, me, my sister, my brother, and Mom

I shamelessly stole this terrific picture from my Mom's Facebook page today!