Simon Says Stamp is 7 years old! What better way to celebrate than to make their traditional Wednesday Challenge all about birthday cards. I have bought all sorts of things from Simon Says Stamp, but one of my favorite things I’ve ordered is More Party Animals by Avery Elle.

Regular ole balloons have always made me nervous- I never liked being startled by all that popping. But balloon animals? Yes, please!

I love making birthday cards. You can never have enough and I’m always glad to have a few on hand (since I can never seem to remember when someone is celebrating a birthday until the day of). I can’t tell you how many stamp sets I’ve bought and never used. Not one of them is a birthday set!

To make the animals, I watercolored swatches on watercolor paper. Once dry, I stamped the balloon animals in black Stazon ink and cut them out using the matching die set. How easy do dies make our lives? I’ll fussy cut if I have to, but give me a die any day! To give a little extra dimension, I drew in a couple of white lines on each “balloon” with my Uni-ball Signo white gel pen.

For the background, I used a large acrylic block and added as many of the confetti pieces as I could. I didn’t want to take the time to stamp each one individually and the set comes with several shapes in different sizes, which is perfect for this! I stamped the confetti in Versamark and then used a makeup sponge to rub blue chalk over the whole card front. The result is a soft blue with the subtle pop where the Versamark was applied. Quick, simple, and fun.

I finished up the card by taping black string to the back of each balloon and attaching  two of them with Stamping’ Up Dimensionals. I tied the strings together and tucked them under a banner with the cute sentiment “Happy Birthday you party animal”. I’m a sucker for a catchy sentiment.

As with all my cards, I decorated the outside of the envelope with a matching stamp. I just like the extra touch and I already have everything out, so why not, right?

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to stop by the Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog and check out all the awesome challenge entries.