Stick It Down - Birthday Card

I have loads of female birthday cards made and ready to go, but I really struggle with cards for older boys and men. I suppose that the problem lies with the patterned paper that I have. It's easy to make pretty cards from paper with flowers and butterflies, but there aren't any interesting repetitive patterns for males. Male cards can have cars or football or golf, but these have to be tailored to the recipient and his interests.

I'd like to have a stash of male cards ready and waiting, and I'm going to try and make them with the aid of Stick It Down's card sketches this year. 

This is the January sketch and we shared Alison's version at the beginning of the month. Today you can see the cards that the rest of the team made. (I'm not on the card DT, just playing along at the same time as their reveal.)

I rely on 6x6 paper pads for making cards; I pulled out the remnants of Basic Grey's Archaic collection for this one and set to work. 

I changed things slightly from the sketch, dropping the dark horizontal paper and the rectangle around the central panel, while I mounted both my banner and my stamped sentiment panel on contrasting paper. I used foam squares under the ends of the banner, and also under the sentiment.