Growing More Beautiful Each Year!!!

This is one of my newest creations. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

First I used the Strait from the Nest cartridge to cut the tree, and the Storybook cartridge for the flourishes in the top and bottom left corners.

I printed the "Happy Birthday" sentiment in French Script font and shaped it into a Banner, then took a metallic silver gel pen and wrote over the sentiment, and pop-dotted it. I also made silver dots around the edge of the sentiment. It turned out rather well, I'd say, but it didn't photograph well.

The large blue half-cartouche I made by tracing a page of a blank chipboard album. I used an adhesive pearl to give it a finished touch!

 The card is 12"x7"; I scored it at 5" and at 10". In doing this it creates an extra 2" flap. 

The sentiment on the flap says "Like a tree, you continue to grow more beautiful with each year passing! And the inside says "And with each passing year that you grow, the more beautiful life becomes!" I printed all the sentiments from my computer, using French Script font.

Again, I used the Strait From the Nest cart to cut the tree branch for the inside of the card.

Overall, I felt that it turned out quite nicely. :)