Masculine birthday card

Hi again!

A quiet day off has allowed me time to continue playing in my craft room. I'm sharing a card I made for a couple of different websites. The first is Freshly Made Sketches. I've been seeing their sketches for a bit now but haven't had the opportunity to play along til today. They had a sketch that I knew was perfect for the masculine card I needed to make. The other is the current Lawnscaping Challenge. They asked us to use our favorite products to create a card. Below you'll find my card and the challenge sketch and badge.

Isn't this a great sketch! I chose to rotate it but it would've worked great just as it was, too. I started out with a brown card base. I used some striped pattern paper from My Mind's Eye and layered that on some dark blue pattern paper from the same pack. I cut out some banners from the same paper pack and then worked on the sentiment. The "happy" is from Simon Says Stamp! and I embossed it to help it stand out a bit more. Then I went to some of my favorite supplies--chipboard letters! I love how you can alter them in any way you need. So, I used some vintage photo distress ink on the "birthday" and adhered that to the card. I wanted to make that stand out a bit, too, so I used my white pen (which I LOVE) and added some faux stitching to the letters. Still has a clean look--but perfect for a masculine card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Pat