We were lucky enough to have a 4th Birthday party to go to today, so I made a card for the occasion. The layout might look familiar to those who follow my blog as I used the exact same one for this card. I thought it worked really well and decided it was perfect for square cards-quite simple but effective. I used to be a ‘line it all up exactly in the middle’ kind of girl when it came to square cards but I think the embellishments frame the main element quite nicely when it is offset like this.

A while back I’d thought about using patterned papers more with my Cricut machine, especially on toppers with lots of layers. This seemed like a really good time to try it out. I have to say I spent a lot more time playing with card combinations than I did actually making it! The papers were all from a Docrafts Forever Friends baby collection 4 years ago, the stamp was a Docrafts Hampstead one and the Owl and number 4 are both from the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge. I chose the large flower rather than a flat die cut as I liked the dimension it gave and the kraft card seemed  like a good backing option to make the owl stand out more as the pastel colours would have disappeared against a white background. Bargain pearls from Poundland made pretty finishing touches (and covered up where I made a tiny glue streak in the eyes!) I love this card, mainly because I got to use gorgeous pastel colours and a ginormous flower!

Looking at the photo I think I could have used a darker mat under the Kraft owl background as you can barely see the die cut shape. The mini flowers might also have looked better in a darker colour, but it’s good to have something to remember for next time!

Just in case you feel inspired, I’ve made the layout on Publisher. It was good to have a go-maybe I will do more of this in the future as I sometimes find layout tricky then look back at my past cards and remember different ways. If I’ve got some files saved to remind me it might make me a bit more efficient and give me more time to play about with paper!