Sweet Birthdays...

So, in case you've been living under a rock for the last month, Tuesday was my 30th birthday. We celebrated by going to look at a van (ugh, don't get me started on my thoughts on THAT), and we ate sushi from my favorite place after the kiddos wen to bed. Not a bad day, overall, with the exception of that van thing making me feel monumentally older than 30... 

I'm a dessert girl. Always have been. My mom used to tell me I was going to turn into a sugar cube. (No, my teeth are not rotten, and I'm not morbidly obese. I just like sweet.) So birthdays always meant getting my favorite sweets. Used to be birthday cake, then it became birthday pie, now... Macarons are my absolute utter favorite dessert, and the only place I can get them in this podunk town are frozen ones at Wal Mart. (YUCK!) I have been promised a real, honest-to-goodness Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday so I can make my own macarons, but that whole van thing might put a delay on that. We'll see. Anyway, since I couldn't get real macarons for my birthday, I decided to color myself some.

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've had an issue with this adorable Bonjour set from Avery Elle for awhile. I just couldn't find a layout I liked for these little macarons. That is, until I found this beautiful image on Pinterest.  I loved the beautiful bokeh background. It was just perfect for that darling little stack of sweetness. So, I set out to make my own.

I began by doing some ink blending on a piece of watercolor card stock in shades of Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, and Abandoned Coral. After I had blended it to my liking, I used the Ellen Hutson Bokeh Dots set to add in some dots of color on the coordinating blended areas. As an afterthought, I added in some little dotty bursts of Gold Delicata to add some sparkle. (Who doesn't like sparkle on their birthday?)  Now, for the "sweet" part of the card: those darling little macarons! I did a little masking with some pale gray ink and the macaron image to create a stack of the little cookies for some no-line watercoloring. I used the same Distress Inks, with the addition of Festive Berries to add some deeper shadows. I fussy cut it out, then popped it up on the bokeh panel. I die cut the "Sweet" sentiment from an Echo Park die set from Bazzill gold foil card stock, and I created the sentiment from two different Winnie and Walter "The Big, the Bold, and the..." sets. I die cut the frame from the new Avery Elle Sweet Scallops die set (I'm having a love affair with that die set. SO versatile!) I popped it up, added the sentiment, and declared myself finished. (Naptime also abruptly came to an early end...) 

I hope you enjoyed my "sweet" birthday post (two days late!). I'm off to go feed my kiddos such unsophisticated fare as peanut butter and jelly while I dream of French macarons and a latte.

Also, now that it's officially October, I'm allowing myself to start creating Christmas goodies. Stay tuned!! :)