Birthday Derek -- Outlawz Progressive Freebie

Happy Tuesday!  This is the most beautiful day of spring so far!  Winter (my Golden Retriever) and I are just home from the dog park.  He had so much fun with a couple of his buddies.  I'll include a couple of recent pictures of my boy at the end of this post.   He's 11 months old now, so probably full grown, but still all puppy.

Derek -- he's the progressive freebie image this month at The Outlawz Monthly Progressive Freebie Challenge.  He's provided by Dr. Digi.  He's called Valentine Derek, but I need a birthday card, so mine's birthday Derek:

I colored Valentine Derek with Copic markers.  Handsome, isn't he?  I thought of using the sentiment, "I used to be a stud muffin, now I'm just a muffin", but I didn't know how to fit all that on the card.  

I used the sketch from the Wednesday Sketch Challenge that ends today, so I'm squeaking in under the wire on this one.  Here's the sketch:

Papers on this card are from Close To My Heart.  I like the bright colors of the papers.  I thought they looked celebratory, and worked well with my image and for a birthday card.  The birthday banner die cut on the left side is from Diamond Press. 

OK, I'm going to wrap this post up and get back outside to enjoy this glorious day!

Here's Winter at 11 months:

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
Outlawz Monday Greeting -- Birthday
Outlawz Progressive Freebie -- May
Outlawz Sketch Challenge -- ends May 14
Seize the Birthday -- ATG