Happy Birthday cards- CAS(E) This Sketch

Hello! We have a big family birthday party coming up in about a week, so I made several cards for that using the current sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I started all of these cards by stamping and coloring the cute little animals. I then fussy cut them out. Then I got creative with the backgrounds. For my first card, I used patterned paper matted on cardstock for my background. It is hard to see in the photo, but I did a little smoosh of light blue ink on the background behind where I put the dog to ground him a bit. The sentiment is cut from patterned paper and mounted on cardstock. I felt like I need a little something across the bottom, so I used a border stamp and added the swirly border. To add a little fun to the dog, I used a Versamark pen and heat embossed the nose with black embossing powder.

For my next card, I used the ink smooshing technique and different shade of blue on my background cardstock. Once that was dry, I dry embossed the background with dots because they reminded me of bubbles. For the whale (again, hard to see in the photo), I pressed it into Versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder three times to give it a smooth, shiny appearance. I stamped the sentiment with Distress Oxide ink to make it stand out on the dark cardstock strip.

For my final card, I stamped the background with a Turnabout stamp. I then inked the edges to give it a more finished look. For the cat, I covered the lens area of the glasses with Versamark pan and heat embossed it with clear powder. I absolutely LOVE the way the glasses turned out on this guy! I stamped the sentiment on a coordinating piece of cardstock and inked the end of it before attaching it to my card.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my cards!