Masculine Teen Birthday Wishes

On my list of things to do is to make birthday cards for my niece and nephew who turn 17 this week.  I think making a card for a 17 year-old boy is one of the greater challenges of card making.  I decided to go with the Sketch from Stamp Something (with some fun stamps from Dog Gone Stamps up for grabs) and stick with bright primary colors from Basic Grey's Cupcake collection.

I replaced the ribbon in the sketch with a wavy punched border.  The sentiment is part of the Birthday Noteblock (I love how I can trim it down to fit different sketches and layouts) from Purple Onion Designs.  I finished with a Martha Stewart punched party hat (backed with a scrap of yellow paper).

I also used this card for Lisa's Scribble This! Week 2 Challenge to learn more about using Levels in Photoshop Elements to get rid of the gray blah's.  I am loving that she is teaching us to use tools we already have more effectively.

To give you an idea … here is the before picture of the same card.

Blah indeed.  I loved learning what that little eye-dropper was for (I also used it on this card, but forgot to save my before shot).