Freshly Made Sketches 269!

Happy new year!  It's been two whole weeks since I've posted anything on my blog!  It was a nice distraction to take a break from my craft room, but now I'm ready to get inky again.  And I'm starting off 2017 with a card I made for the new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our first sketch of the year is designed by the talented and oh-so witty Linda Callahan.

Those stripes were a bit of a stumper for me at first but once I decided to stamp a sentiment vertically on a piece of vellum the rest of the card just fell into place.  I chose this birthday themed stamp set and took some of my cues from the challenge at Global Design Project.  The navy blue and rose color (the ribbons on my gifts) plus the brown bear (which was supposed to look more like the caramel color in the inspiration photo but ended up more brown and tan) were inspired by the photo.  Plus the celebratory theme of the balloons was what inspired me to make a birthday card.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you enjoyed a wonderful holiday and a happy new year.  Make sure to pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches, if you haven't already, to see the fantastic cards made by the design team.  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Birthday Bears (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Soft Sky, Night of Navy, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Jet Black (Stazon)
Accessories:  Birthday Bears die (My Favorite Things); sequins