Project Inspiration: A Sweet Birthday Cake Card by Brenda Noelke

There’s nothing quite like a homemade birthday cake—especially when it’s made of paper! Brenda Noelke created this stunning stitched birthday cake card, inspired by her husband’s love for carrot cake. Using the In Stitches: Cake Builder Die Set, she crafted a layered, textured cake that looks almost good enough to eat!

Paired with vibrant ink blending and elegant die-cutting, this card is the perfect celebration of handmade love.

How to Make This Birthday Cake Card

STEP 1: Prepare the Base Layers

Trim a panel of True Black cardstock to 5” x 6.25” for a custom-sized base.

Cut a piece of Bitty Big: True Black cardstock to 3” tall x 5” wide and adhere it across the center of the black panel.

STEP 2: Create the Ink-Blended Background

Blend Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse, Blueberry Sky, and Royal Velvet onto an A2 white cardstock panel.

Die-cut the Geo Flowers Cover Plate from white cardstock and splatter it with diluted True Black ink for a distressed effect.

Once dry, adhere the cover plate to the ink-blended panel and mount it onto the black cardstock panel.

Die-cut the largest Love to Layer: Scalloped Oval Die from vellum and adhere it to soften the background.

STEP 3: Build the Stitched Cake

Die-cut the In Stitches: Cake Builder Dies from:

Canyon Clay cardstock for the cake layers.

Vintage Cream cardstock for the frosting.

White cardstock for additional accents.

Use alcohol markers to add shading and texture to the cake and frosting for depth.

Ink-blend the candles and flames with the same colors used in the background.

Add white gel pen details to enhance the stitching effect.

Assemble the cake with liquid glue and adhere it to the center of the vellum oval.

STEP 4: Add the Sentiments

Die-cut the Line It Up: Birthday Die once from True Black cardstock and three times from heavyweight white cardstock.

Stack the layers together for a bold, dimensional effect, trim the edges, and adhere the sentiment below the cake.

White heat emboss the sentiment from This Is Big Sentiments: Birthday Stamp Set onto True Black cardstock, trim, and pop it up onto the cake with foam tape.

STEP 5: Assemble and Display

Mount the entire design onto a custom-sized black card base.

Pair with an A7 envelope for a perfect presentation.

STEP 6: Emboss the Sentiment

Heat emboss a sentiment from Tuck It Sentiments onto a strip of Blueberry Sky cardstock using white detail embossing powder. Attach the sentiment to the card using foam squares for extra dimension.

Brenda’s stitched birthday cake card is a showstopper—layered, colorful, and full of heartfelt creativity! Whether you’re crafting for a loved one or just building your collection, these versatile Papertrey Ink products will help you create something truly special.

Looking for more birthday card inspiration? Check out our past Project Inspiration posts for even more creative ideas!

Happy crafting! 🎂✨