Happy Birthday Card

This card is to die for.....or wait....maybe that should read this die is to card for?  Confused? Let's start with the finished card. Isn't it cute?

It began with Stephanie Barnard's Happy Birthday Step-Ups Die Set, Sizzix # 660142. It is a 19 piece Framelit die that looks like this:

Once you've chosen your papers, the rest is easy peasy.

Here are the components. That bit of yellow at the top is twine that matches the bows on the right. The white letters were adhered before I took the photo. No special technique, I just used a tape runner over the back of the words. I like that they are all connected rather than individually gluing each letter.

Here are components assembled and ready to go on the card. I used a marker on the presents and scribbled some color on three of the four bows.

I used pop dots on the gifts and cupcakes, glue dots on the ends of the twine that hold the banner and under the bows at the end of the string.  For no particular reason, rather than cutting the pennants with the die, I used the tree punch from  Stampin' Up and a standard (small) hole punch.

This die is going to get a lot of use and with my horde ...abundance ... collection of other small dies and stamps to decorate the panel on the left, I will be able to vary the designs.