21 today ....

....  Ben, is 21 years old today. I'm sure that time goes on a faster path once you have children - it really doesn't feel like 21 years since I had Ben. My blond baby boy is a man - with black hair and a beard! I was really lucky to spend a few days with him over the new year period helping him get settled into his new flat. This is the card that I made for him:

Stamps: Visible Image - Tomorrow Doesn't Exist, Rays of Light, Music Speaks; Uniko - Simply Said Birthday
Inks: Kaleidacolor - Blue Breeze; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Stampin' Up/Sizzix - Large Number Framelits
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Black Gloss Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Doodlebug Sprinkles - Black; Clear Embossing Powder

I'm not sure whether or not Ben will have received the card yet! Some of the post I send to the UK gets there quickly, other times it takes ages. I've made a really clean and simple card for Ben - he tends to like them that way. I used my favourite ombre blue inks - Blue Breeze from Kaleidacolor - to ink up the sound waves and sun ray images. I die cut the numbers from some black gloss card and also from some plain black card, layering them together to give some thickness to the number. I adhered them flat to the card front. I finished the front by adding some simple black enamel dots. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card. On the white panel I stamped another of the sound wave images and added a birthday greeting which was made up from stamps from Uniko and Visible Image. I heat embossed them with clear powder.

I really like the Visible Image sets - they work so well for masculine style cards!  I'm submitting this card to several challenges:

• Less is More - LIM#310 where they have a Colour challenge and they want an ombre look
• CAS on Sunday - CASOS#99 where they want Black, White & one other colour - I picked blue
• Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#152 where they want to see Birthday cards
• City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#344 where they want you to cheer up someone and use blue
• The Male Room - TMR#51 where we have an ANYTHING GOES theme

I actually made this card before any of these challenges were posted - it's amazing that it works for them all :)

Before I go, I'm going to share a several pictures of my young man Ben, after all, it's his 21st birthday:

Ben dressed up in a knitted suit. Get a load of those specs I'm wearing!!

One of my favourite photos of Ben - pure joy on his face - he was 11 months old here.

One of my pageboys at our wedding in April 2001.

 It's super Ben - Canterbury. 

Ben and Jonathan - family trip to Pontin's in August 2006. Ben was 10 years old here.

Taken on a very cold morning at the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade in November 2014.

And this is my most recent photo of Ben taken on 1st January 2017 in Hastings railway station. We'd been shopping and Ben walked me to the station to get my train back to London. It was pouring with rain and we both got soaked! I hope that Ben has the most wonderful birthday and send him all my love and best wishes.

That's all for today.