Autumn Birthday Card

I made this card for my father-in-law's birthday, but I think it fits perfectly with Rhi's Fantastic Fall Challenge as well! I wanted to make a more masculine card, and the new Apple Cider paper (it's in the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalogue) is very "fall-ish" and masculine! I love the autumn colours in this paper!

I found the sketch for this card in the September 2007 issue of PaperCrafts magazine. It was designed by Susan Neal. Her card is more girly, with flowers and pretty feminine colours, so I changed it up to match the designer paper.

The card base is River Rock. I used the Baroque Motifs stamp set for the circles. They're stamped in Close to Cocoa and Pumpkin Pie, punched out with the 3/4-inch and 1 1/4-inch circle punches and adhered with dimensionals. For the main "happy birthday" part, I stamped the words in Pumpkin Pie. The "happy" is from Polka Dots & Paisley and the "birthday" is from Everyday Flexible Phrases. I stamped the little circles in River Rock, Pumpkin Pie and Close to Cocoa. I used Mustard grosgrain to finish it off, although I think it might look better with Chocolate ribbon...