Happy Bee-day

Here's my card for this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I need to add a few birthday cards to my stash, so I made this one a bee-themed birthday design.

I know Giddy Bugs is kind of an older Paper Smooches set, but it's relatively new to me and I've been having so much fun with it.  I didn't get the matching dies when I bought it, but I may have to add them to my collection since I know I'm getting a lot of use out of this set.  For this card, I used the set's bee image.  It was colored with Copic markers, then carefully cut out.  I used foam tape to adhere it to a pale blue cardstock panel with a pair of yellow gingham panels near the top.  The edge of each patterned panel was rounded with my corner rounder for a softer look. 

I mixed and matched words from two different stamp sets (Bee Mine and Sentiment Sampler) to create my custom "happy bee-day" sentiment.   After the sentiment was stamped, the design looked a little bare, so I went back and added a crystal flourish as a flight trail and a trio of sparkly silver sequins for some sparkle.

Materials Used:
Giddy Bugs, Sentiment Sampler, and Bee Mine stamp sets (Paper Smooches); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko/IMAGINE Crafts); markers (Copic); Sea Glass cardstock (Avery Elle); Harvest Gold cardstock, Lemon Tart patterned paper (Papertrey Ink); crystal flourish (Prima); corner rounder; foam tape