Inspirational birthday card

As soon as I saw the All Good Things stamp set from Stampin' Up! I knew it was one I was going to buy. The one thing I wasn't sure about was the fact that two of the images (the bonsai tree and the large koi) were connected to sentiments. Of course, you could always ink part of the stamp to use just the image or just the sentiment, but that can be a little fussy to do sometimes. So when I was ready to order the set, I bought the clear-mount version and did a little "surgery."

Using a craft knife, I very carefully sliced apart the stamps. Just pull the blade; don't saw. It doesn't have to be a perfectly straight cut; in fact, it helps if it's a little imperfect. Then if you do want to use the two parts together, you can just join them up like puzzle pieces before attaching them to a clear block. So now I have all the images separate from the sentiments, so it's much easier to make a card like this:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: All Good Things, Inside & Out: Birthday (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock
Ink: Mango Melody, Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stardust Gelly Roll pen (Sakura)
Accessories: Blue sequins (Craft Medley), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

I love how this card turned out! I started by stamping the large orange koi near the upper right corner. I added the sentiment below and then filled in the rest of the card front with more koi, making sure to change the orientation of the images so it looks like a pond full of swimming koi.

Speaking of pond, I wanted to add some blue to create the impression of water. I could have watered down some blue ink and done a light wash of color in a few of the more open white spaces. But I also wanted to add a little embellishment to this single-layer card, so instead I added a few sparkling blue sequins.

I decided the card needed a little more sparkle, so I used a Stardust Gelly Roll pen to draw a glittery highlight along each koi's tail and fins. It's subtle (and hard to see in this photo) but really pretty when it catches the light.

I think the sentiment on the front of this card could be fitting for several different occasions, such as a graduation or congrats on a new job. I planned to make this into a birthday card because I am perpetually in need of more birthday cards. I didn't want to just stamp "Happy birthday" on the inside, though, because I wanted the sentiment to link back to the words on the front of the card.

So I dug through various birthday and greeting stamp sets and tried a few options -- I even asked a friend to vote for her favorite. I finally decided on this one: "Each birthday is a new beginning full of promise and opportunity and the chance to make dreams come true." I think it works really well with the sentiment on the front to create a birthday card that's a little more inspirational than a  traditional birthday card.

I decided to add a little color inside the card, so I stamped one of the small koi images with Mango Melody ink. I love how the shape of the koi makes it look like it's swimming around the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!