cure for winter boredom - a crafty birthday card

Sometimes when it's gloomy & cold outside I get bored. It's not that I'm an outdoor girl so much, but I think it's just the fact that you can't really go out and do much for very long when it's the bitter cold days of winter, ya know? 

We've had a lot of those kinds of days this winter. BOOOO !

The other day I felt like making a cute birthday card for a friend. I had seen it on Pinterest and when I clicked the pin, it took me to a blogger who was kind enough to share the tutorial. 
Step.by.step.by.step.
For a detail oriented girl like me (with a dash of OCD/perfectionism) you can't imagine how happy this made me.  
{ s w o o n } 

Anyway, here's MY CARD - - 

happy birthday message was a Stampin' Up stamp

The front of the card was the last thing I did... 

I like how it turned out! 

The dry embossing on the lighter green strip toward the bottom was pretty much a waste of my time. {lesson learned} But I think the wet embossing of the Happy Birthday circle design gives it a bit of texture & shine. I also put the 3D glue dots under that, which gave some dimension to the front. 

Here's the link to Ms. Lisa Young's blog and her tutorial for making this card - - Lisa Young's blog

If I'm being honest, it took me a couple hours to make my card but I was flipping through papers, searching for ribbon, playing around with things on my Cricut and what not. 

If I did it again (and I plan to) I think I'd be able to do it much faster the second time around. 

Now go make a card! Stat! 

Homemade is A L W A Y S better than store bought!