Happy Birthday Dad

This card was made for my three sons to give to their father for his Christmas Eve birthday today. My eldest and youngest sons look very similar and are sometimes mistaken for each other; the middle one has a panama hat which he wears in the summer, so the Marianne dies were particularly appropriate.

 
The card started as one A4 piece of heavyweight brown card which was cut down to a width of 14.8cm.  The offcut was used to make the layer along the bottom.  Both pieces were scored at A4 half and A5 gate fold and bent in opposite directions.
I found some offcuts of some brown and cream patterned card in my 'bit box' which were trimmed to fit the panels (Paper Salon 'Enamoured' collection; Iron Gates and Dotted Stripe).  The Iron Gate paper was used on the main card and the Dotted Stripe on the narrow piece along the bottom.  By gluing one section of the striped piece onto one section, allowing it to dry then folding and gluing the next section, a smooth continuous panel was formed with no creases/excess paper at each fold.  The Dad die from the Family Sentiments die set by Tonic Studios and the Happy Birthday from the Everyday Sentiments die set were cut from brown card and coloured using Chocolate Bronze Metallic Gilding Polish by Cosmic Shimmer.  I trimmed the large swirl from the bottom of the Happy Birthday sentiment and added them to the striped narrow piece.
The Marianne Silhouette Men dies were used to cut three 'heads' and highlighted using the Chocolate Bronze Metallic Gilding Polish.  I didn't think that they stood out enough against the Iron Gates patterned paper on the main card, so added a 6cm x 14.8cm strip of brown paper first (the reverse of the patterned paper so that the colour would match exactly).
Once all the panels were glued in place, I added a plain piece of cream paper (again the reverse of one of the patterned pieces), which was die cut using one of the Deco Geometric Nesting dies by Tonic Studios.  This would enable the boys to write a greeting to their Dad.  The sentiment has a double meaning, as although the boys are all over 6' 3", their father is 6' 9" tall.