Tomorrow is “The Big Day.” My dear husband will be turning…well, he probably wouldn’t care if I said how old he’ll be.  But if you know how much older he is than I am, and you can do basic Kindergarten math, it gives up my age, and we don’t want that getting out.  So, let’s just say it’s his birthday and let it go at that.

After years of stamping and making his birthday cards, it’s hard to come up with something original.  I’m sure I’ve used Open Sea, from the Stampin’ Up!® annual catalog before – probably last year!  But I love the set and he loves the ocean, so it seemed like a good choice.

Click on photo to view larger image.

This didn’t turn out quite like I saw it in my head, but it’s close.  I stamped the ship three times – once on the watercolored card stock and twice on scraps.  I colored each one, then layered them.  I sponged a little bit of the Illuminate Glimmer ink (from the Stampin’ Up!® Holiday Catalog) on the sun and the water, to add a little shimmer.  The frame around the ship is one of the Apothecary collection framelits.  I cut out the ship layer, then decided it needed a mat.  When I layered it to the Sahara Sand card stock, and held a framelit from the Labels Collection over it, the little rounded parts fit so well.   It kind of looked like the wheel on a ship, so I decided to cut both layers together.

Mike is full of wonderful ideas and dreams, so the inside sentiment is the “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams” saying from Word Play.  I thought that fit him very well.

His “big celebration” is tomorrow night.  I always like to give the guys (and now the girls!) their choice for birthday dinner.  Mike, of course, said he didn’t care.  I know he wants to eat healthier, so we’re having salmon steaks, rice, broccoli and green beans – fresh from the garden!  And, of course, lemon cake for dessert.  Well, we’re almost healthy.  With 10 people here, I don’t think we’ll have a lot of cake left over, so one or two slices won’t mess up his resolution to be healthy too badly.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day.

Supplies – Stamps:  Open Sea, Word Play (inside); Ink:  Marina Mist, Midnight Muse, So Saffron, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake classic; Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron stampin’ write markers; Illuminate Watermark Glimmer Pad; Paper:  Naturals Ivory, Sahara Sand, Marina Mist card stock; Other:  Big Shot, 1″ circle punch, Apothecary and Labels collection framelits, sponge, stampin’ dimensionals, aqua painter