Wishing You A Happy Birthday Card: C. C. Designs April 2025 New Release

Hello, crafty friends! There’s something about birthdays that never gets old—especially when you can create a handmade card that brings a smile before the envelope is even opened. Today, I’m sharing a cheerful birthday card I created using the brand-new Celebrate Swissie Stamp Set from the April 2025 release over at C.C. Designs. This little Swissie stole my heart the moment I saw her holding that stack of gifts like it was her full-time job.

This card gave me a chance to play with a few of my favorite techniques—coloring, custom backgrounds, and building soft little scenes. If you ever feel like your stamped image is floating in space or that your patterned papers aren’t quite the right fit, this post is for you. Let’s talk about a simple approach that lets your focal image shine while adding some interest to your background—and you don’t need a stash full of fancy papers to do it.

Wishing You A Happy Birthday Card:

Stamp Sets That Inspire the Whole Card

I’m a big believer that one great stamp set can spark a whole project—and that’s exactly what happened here. The Celebrate Swissie Stamp Set includes this darling little girl with her present stack, plus a few smaller sentiments and images that make it perfect for birthdays all year long.

When I sat down to design this card, I knew I wanted the Swissie to take center stage, but I also didn’t want the background to feel like an afterthought. I wanted something soft, playful, and bright without stealing the spotlight.

Coloring with Ohuhu Brush Markers

I stamped the Swissie using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink onto Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80 lb Cardstock, which is a go-to for me when I’m using alcohol markers. For this card, I reached for my Ohuhu Honolulu 48 Brush Marker Set, along with the Ohuhu 36 Skin Tone Set. If you're looking for a budget-friendly marker option that still blends beautifully, these have been such a solid addition to my stash.

Pro tip: When coloring stacked images like gifts, pick a color palette before you start. I usually lay out 3–5 coordinating markers and repeat those tones for a cohesive look that still has variety.

After coloring, I fussy cut her out with my trusty Mini Recoil Snips and set her aside so I could start building the rest of the card.

Creating Custom Patterned Papers

Instead of reaching for patterned paper, I created my own tone-on-tone designs using just cardstock and stamps from the set. I love this trick because it lets me tailor the colors to my card—and it’s a great way to stretch the usefulness of your stamp sets.

For the green panel, I cut a strip of green cardstock and stamped just the top of the Swissie image repeatedly in Key Lime Ink. It gave a fun, playful look that echoes the main image without competing with it. For the orange panel, I used a small sentiment from the set, stamped repeatedly in Apricot Ink for a clean and graphic look.

Pro tip: Stamp off the edge of the cardstock to make the pattern feel continuous and more organic. A little imperfection makes it feel handmade—in the best way.

Building a Sweet Scene with Ink Blending & Dies

One of my favorite ways to add softness to a card is by ink blending a background. For this card, I used my Cloudy Stencil from my stash and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to blend a soft sky onto a white panel. Then I created a grassy border using a Grassy Border Die from my stash and ink blended the top edge just a touch for dimension.

Layering these simple elements together creates a cozy little space for the Swissie to live in. It turns a single stamped image into a whole scene—and it’s much easier than it looks.

Layered Sentiments That Pop

For the sentiment, I stamped “Wishing You A Happy Birthday” onto white cardstock and used a 2" circle die to cut it out. I layered it with a slightly larger lavender circle for a bit of contrast. This is a quick trick that really helps a sentiment stand out—especially when you’re working with lots of color in your card design.

I placed the circle in the top left corner of my sky panel to balance out the card visually. It felt like the perfect finishing touch without taking anything away from that sweet stamped image.

Finishing It Off

Once all my pieces were prepped, assembly came together in a flash. I built the layers onto a 4" x 5 ¼" white panel, starting with my handmade pattern strips, then centered the scene panel on top. The sentiment was added to the top left, and I popped the Swissie up on foam adhesive to bring her forward just a little more.

To finish the card, I added a few sparkle embellishments from my stash (because no birthday card is complete without a little sparkle) and some white gel pen highlights to bring everything to life. The entire panel was mounted to a top-folding A2 card base, and just like that—it was done!

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever felt stuck trying to find the perfect background paper, I hope this card inspires you to try making your own. A few stamps and ink pads can go a long way toward creating something that feels completely custom and totally “you.”

This Celebrate Swissie set is one of those stamp sets that just makes card making feel joyful—and I love that it gave me the chance to play with both coloring and scene building in one project.

If you give this idea a try, I’d love to see what you make. Whether you’re team pattern paper or team ink blending, there’s always room to stretch our supplies and try something new. Happy crafting!

Thanks for dropping by today I hope that you found a little spark of creative inspiration with my project today. Wondering what I used in this project? Everything is linked to multiple sources in the thumbnails in the Materials Used section, or in the text below. Compensated affiliate links used when possible.

Materials Used:

Here you will find the list of supplies that I used to create today's card. All supplies are linked to supply sources below. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.

Happy Stampin'

Rick Adkins

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