Birthdays and Birthday Cards

Hello, everyone. I have been terrible about posting on my blog and am truly feeling disappointed in myself about it. Even though I haven't been posting, I have been creating. January and February are big in my family for birthdays, and it seems like I've made plenty of birthday cards between the end of January through the middle of February.

The end of January marked some milestone birthdays for both my son Danny, and my niece Jennifer. Danny turned 21 and Jennifer turned 18. I used the same card design for both their cards.  And here you have them:

I cut the "21"  from the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge at 2.62" (sized on my Gypsy). Next, I cut the "Happy Birthday" from the Cricut Caligraphy cartridge at 3".

I placed my numbers on a mat of decorative paper, which I offset onto a black mat, which I offset on the card base. I adhered using my ATG..

 Next I adhered the "Happy Birthday" over the "21",  added a rhinestone over the "i" and a metal square in the corner. Wow, a simple card that I like!

A simple (but appropriate) sentiment for the inside of the card (matted with some scraps) and this card is done.

I liked this one so much, I decided I would copy the design for my niece whose birthday was three days later. Here is her finished card . I could not get a good picture of the card no matter how hard I tried, so excuse the poor quality. I loved the bright colors I used for her card.

Supplies:
Numbers from Cindy Loo cartridge (Provocraft)
Happy Birthday from Caligraphy cartridge (Provocraft)
Patterned Paper/cardstock: Story of  US by ATD (a seriously old mat stack) for the "21" card; Twitterpated by SEI for the "18" card
Bling from stash (various manufacturers)
Finished card size: 4-1/4 X 5-1/2 (A2)