I needed to make a first birthday card recently for a boy.

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I wanted to avoid anything traditionally ‘boy’ so no trains or cars or anything. Looking through my cut file library, I found one for a hot air balloon that I’d used in a card before and so decided to build a card around that.

Again I didn’t want overly masculine colours and so picked out some more neutral papers for the background. I did the same for the colours for the hot air balloon itself. 

The paper for the background is from My Mind’s Eye. The white card is a textured cardstock Core’dinations which is a massive craft staple for me. The hot air balloon was made using the Papermania cardstock* that I always rely on for cutting out shapes. I then topped the balloon with a glittery ‘1’. This was made out of thick glitter cardstock that I had in my stash.

I also made a second card using lilac cardstock. 

The banner was an idea I had. I made it in Silhouette and added the text. Next I turned on the registration marks and printed it out in the thickest card that would go through my printer. I then sent it through the Silhouette to get the cut.

Because the card wasn’t that thick it was quite delicate and fiddly. I added some thick sticky pads to it and attached to the card. I wanted a nice 3d effect on the banner itself and think I achieved it. Then, to finish off the banner I added some glitter dots.

I really like this. The fact it works well for both boys and girls means I can just make one of these and have it to hand for any birthday – I’d just need to add on the year (if I wanted to).