Honestly, I did not want this Happy Birthday set when I first saw it. My friends were getting it, but I just wasn’t into it. It looked like a wedding cake and well I just didn’t think I would use it.

Then I started seeing some of the cards other Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators were making. AND I joined Paper Pumpkin, Stampin’ Up!’s monthly all-inclusive kit and wouldn’t you know the Happy Birthday to You stamp set, coordinates with my February Paper Pumpkin? My first Paper Pumpkin. And of course they launched Dies for this set in the Coordinating Products release. Dies so I could cut out the birthday cake or cut out the flowers and some leaves. So many choices.

There was no getting around it. I was going to have to get this Free set and the dies. So I did.

One Saturday morning, I was scrolling through card samples using this set and this gorgeous card by Stamping Beauty Angela Meiritz-Reid spoke to me. It is SO beautiful and it uses some techniques I haven’t tried yet: Stampin Resist, Masking and Water Coloring with the Stampin’ Write Markers (what?!).

It took me a few YouTube videos to learn the techniques, but then I was picking out Stampin’ Write Markers from my stash and digging for my Aqua Painter. My plan was to make several different color flowers, but once I got started, I was so excited, just coloring away, I ended up with four cards exactly matching the one Angela made!!  Oh well copying is the best form of compliment, right?

I waited all week to show them to my co-workers at our Paper Pumpkin Lunch and boy were they a hit!  They all loved this card, just as much as I do. We’ll be doing some of these techniques in an upcoming class.

Making other people happy, makes me happy. Happy Birthday to You!!