It's a BRIGHT celebration!

We celebrate five birthdays a year in the Steele home and it's a tradition to decorate the table and chair of the birthday person.  After the birthday boy/girl goes to bed the night before his or her big day, I pull out my box of decorations and party tablecloth and begin the process.  I throw bright crepe paper streamers over the chandelier in colors of blue, green, pink, yellow, and orange.  I cover the table with a liner that has sprinkles printed on it.  I stand up a 4-foot long cardboard cutout that spells "Happy Birthday" and has shiny purple and pink foil fringe.  There are pinwheels scattered about the table and a present waiting on top of the Special Plate, a platter that only the birthday celebrant may dine from.   

The birthday person also gets to choose what dessert mom makes.  We've had Chocolate Strawberry Delight, Chocolate Beet Cake with Homemade Frosting, Buckeye Cake, Apple Pie, and Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble.  When they girls were smaller, the cakes were more fanciful.  One year, I made a cake that looked like a CandyLand game board.  Another year, I created a pool scene on top of a cake using blue Jell-O, teddy bear graham crackers, and pretzel sticks.  The Pampered Chef sold this mixing bowl that I could bake a cake in, then invert it and stick a Barbie in it and it looked like she was wearing a huge fancy skirt.  None were bakery-perfect, but they all made my family feel so loved and so special.  And they sure were fun to create!

Much like this card:

Both the color scheme and layout are from Splitcoaststampers, a place from which I get a lot of stamping help.  See that polka-dotted ribbon?  I colored it with my Stampin' Blends to match my card!

I used the brush tip of my Stampin' Blends to color the little felt dots on this ribbon.  It didn't ruin the tips, although if you just touch the Blends tip to the ribbon dot, the color flows to it without having to move the Blends tip.  I was so tickled about this trick, I was talking out loud to myself!

Sometimes it's tricky to get a clean cut with more intricate dies.  A couple years ago, I read a tip that has worked perfectly every time and I'm passing it along to you:

I've used this tip to cut lacy hearts and detailed butterflies and the die-cuts peel right off the dryer sheet, leaving the little bits behind.

Must-Haves from This Card:

Color pearls, rhinestones, and ribbons any color you want; get beautiful shading and blending when coloring stamped images; no marker lines

You can make easy backgrounds with the Birthday Backgrounds set.  The stamps are designed so that you can ink and stamp without having to line images up.  They'll look good no matter where you stamp them.

Soft and easy to tie, this ribbon adds a playful touch to your projects.  And I showed how you can use your Blends to make the dots any color you need.

Shop my online store here to get these must-haves and don't forget to contact me to get your Holiday Catalog Package!