Taylored Expressions: A Happy 13th

It's my niece's birthday tomorrow. The big one...13!  It's a tough age in many ways - it's even tough on the aunt making her a card.  Her favorite color is no longer pink.  I didn't think anything cutesy or frilly would work because she thinks she's all grown up.  But I definitely wanted some shine and sparkle.  I figured balloons would be a safe option - as long as I added shine and a lot of sequins!!


I love the balloons and the strings.  You could get by with one balloon on a very CAS card.  I added a grouping to get all of her favorite colors- plus they gave me a background for the shiny 13.


The "happy" down the side was an after thought after I laid out my balloons and had space to fill - but I like it because it allowed me to add that fun paper in the background.  I mixed sequins from a few different mixes (yes, one of them is a Halloween mix but it had the perfect plum to match the star balloon!)


My family will see her briefly on her birthday.  We are the surprise judges for her pizza party cooking contest.  My SIL is avoiding telling me if all of their ingredients are "safe" or whether the judges are in for some unusual flavors.  Our real birthday time (along with her soon-to-be 10-year sister) will be in a few weeks when they hang out with my family.  We're going to watch one of my favorite movies ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown"), play games with my guys, and make Valentine cards for her parents. Then they are going to spend the night and the next day we are going to visit the house that the real Molly Brown lived in in Denver.  I don't get to hang out with girls very often so I think I'm more excited about the weekend than my nieces will be!

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