Birthdays Only Challenge at Here Come The Boys

Well yesterday was one of my "boys" birthdays... my youngest son Chris turned 28 - where did the  time go??  As I'm really busy at the moment with life other than craft, it was a lucky break for me that the challenge starting today over at Here Come The Boys is "Birthdays Only", as it meant today's card could do a sort of "double duty"

I always make a "special" cake for my boys (actually all the family get one, they all have a different "favourite, lol) and over the years The Cake has taken on more and more significance, so when I saw this image over at Digi Doodle Shop (now sadly out of business) I had to have it, then when I saw the great sentiment (on the inside of my card) "Birthdays, it's all about the cake" over at TLC I could hardly believe my luck - not only was it perfect, it was one of the ever-generous Paulette's freebies BONUS!  The sentiment on the front is a die cut from Craftworks Cards.
This great sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp gives loads of room for interpretation - I love sketches like that - obviously my card is a rotated version :-)
I coloured the image with Copics, adding some extra shading with Prismacolor pencils.  The papers are from Echo Park (A Walk in the Park pad, I'm on scraps, aahhh!), and Inque Boutique (I think) I love these cheery colours - who says a man's card has to be dull?!  Without Words has Whizz Bang (use bright colours) as their theme, so I'm entering there, Moving Along With The Times has Let's Go Dotty, Craft Your Passion has Use your scraps and Divas by Design has Two or More Patterned Papers, so entering there as well :-)
I spelled out "Chris" using metal letters I got in a pack from spotlight ages ago, fixing them with brads, which is the reason I have a strip of patterned paper on the inside of the card - to cover the "legs" of the brads! 
The Paper Shelter has Birthdays as their challenge theme, My Mums Craft Shop has Inspiration From a Song (I was actually thinking Rihanna's song Birthday Cake, not the obvious, lol) and Fab'n'funky Challenges has Birthday; include 3 of something - I've got three bits of Card Candi as well as three papers, so I'm in :-)
I've used Mpress Victorian Frames dies for the image panel and mat, and my Carl Punch corner rounder on all the patterned paper panels.
Chris is going to Kuala Lumpur with a friend next weekend for a wedding, we decided to give him some spending money as his birthday gift so I made sure his card had a place for some cash :-)  
I put the sentiment on a tag, adding an eyelet with my fabby new Cropadile... sooooo much easier (and more reliable!) than the Fiskars system I was using (rarely, because of disappointment with the results) before.  I double matted the tag, meaning I could use the back of it to write our personal message, then I popped it in front of his money giving at least a tiny element of "surprise" to the whole cash-as-a-gift scenario :-)
Joanna Sheen has Anything Goes (Excluding Christmas) and the Corrosive Challenge is Anything Goes this time around too, so I'm entering there.
That's about it for my card today.  My son is a truly lovely young man (no bias here, lol) so I hope this year brings him much happiness... unfortunately his job came to an end on Thursday so he is job hunting as soon as he returns from his little holiday to KL :-(  Never easy at this time of year in Australia, as many places close for a several weeks over Christmas/ January (it's the summer holidays too), but he is very employable and has never had any trouble getting work; it's not always in his field, (he is a photographer) but he has eclectic taste and an ever increasing skill set, lol.
Don't forget to pop over to Here Come The Boys, check out the great range of Birthday projects by the team, why not have a go at the challenge too... it may be Christmas but those guys in your life still need birthday cards :-)
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna