The Crafty Den: son's birthday card

Hello lovely friends; I hope you've had a great start to your week. Mine was lovely, I met a friend for breakfast and we talked and talked and put the world to rights lol! Then I picked up my new Christmas tree - it's the first one we've had since we had Willow the wild cat so only went for a very basic pop up tree but for £30 I was pleasantly surprise at how good it looks (although she is very interested in it so don't hold out much hope that it will survive until next year!!). Then a quick look around the shops and bought 2 Christmas gifts, but at least I can say I've officially started Christmas shopping now! I'm going on a shopping trip to Bristol on Wednesday so hopefully will get a few more (fingers crossed).

It was my son's birthday last week - my 'baby' is now 27 - and I can't believe where the time has gone, especially as I only look 25 myself hahahahaha! Here is the card I made for him:

a close up of the hi-tops:

and I decorated the inside:

added a few stars to the envelope so everything was matching:

I began by die cutting the sneakers from patterned paper and the various add on pieces from white and black card. I stuck them together with liquid glue and also added a couple of extra shoe pieces to make them more sturdy. I then cut a white card panel 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and used a stencil and some light grey ink to create my background; this was then added to a black card mat with double sided tape. I cut a smaller white card panel 3 5/8" x 5 5/8" and stamped my sentiments in black ink. This again was then added onto a black card mat with double sided tape. The sneakers were added with a mixture of liquid glue (for the bottom sneaker) and foam squares for the top sneaker. The stars were then added with liquid glue. The whole thing was then added to a 5" x 7" card base with double sided tape. For the inside I cut another white card panel 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and again used the same stencil but this time leaving a white area in the middle so that I could stamp my greeting (and also write my message). Again this was added to a black card mat with double sided tape. Finally I die cut some extra stars and added them to the bottom left corner of my envelope. I'm really happy with the final result, enough going on without being too fussy - and my son loved it too, especially as he has a pair of Converse shoes very similar to these!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option ~~make them smile~~

Cut It Up challenge - use more than one die (sneaker dies/star dies)

Dream Valley challenge - ATG

Krafty Chicks challenge - ATG

Little Red Wagon challenge - Bohemian Rhapsody (my 3 elements are stencilling, die-cutting and stamping)

Papercraft challenges - happy birthday

Seize the Birthday challenge - ATG birthday - no topping this time