I knew from the beginning that I wanted the cat to be the only thing competing for attention, so I kept the background loose and full of movement instead of adding lots of extra elements.

I built it up with layers of Distress color in pinks and turquoise, adding a stencil pattern here and there before finishing with a few splatters. None of those layers are meant to stand out on their own, they simply create enough variation to make the cat pop without feeling disconnected from the rest of the tag.

For the cat, I stayed with warm oranges and browns, pushing the shadows to give him a little more personality. The teal balloon, bow tie and party hat repeat the same color around the tag so everything feels connected, while the black feather at the top adds a bit of height without taking attention away from the focal point.

The sentiment was an easy choice. It’s the kind of sarcastic birthday greeting that makes me laugh every time I read it, and it matched this slightly bewildered cat perfectly.

Sometimes I spend ages planning every layer before I even start. This wasn’t one of those projects. I simply enjoyed the process of building the background, coloring the image and letting the character carry the whole design.