40th Birthday Card -Time To Have Some Fun!

While talking with a friend at our boys' lacrosse game this past season, she happened to mention that her brother was going to be forty soon. Now, I know her brother because he comes to a lot of the lacrosse games. And the two are very close, and delight in picking on and teasing each other.  So I jumped at the 40th birthday opportunity and offered to make a card. Time to play and have some fun!

So I decided the card had to be very masculine, he's a very big dude. And the card also had to be kind of on the mean side, just for fun! And this is how it began.

I used this great shiny black snakeskin paper for the background, and did the bell out a swirly silver paper. I used my Sakura glaze pens to do a gray outline on the bell and then decided to add the crack in there too, just like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, which is where I'm from originally.  I already had the phrase in mind, so I played around with fonts and sizing in my Broderbund Print Shop program, which I really use the heck out of.  The edges of the phrases were cut with deckle edge scissors and then I carefully inked the edges black. And I also grabbed a Sakura glaze pen in black and accented the first letter of both phrases. 

Then it was on to the inside.

I started with the black and silver papers that I used on the card front.  And then I decided to add the little pop up.  I used the same font as the front and accented the capital Ls with my favorite black Sakura glaze pen.  The 40! is a cardboard punch out that I glitter-glued with red Stickles.  I used a different font for the happy birthday tag, because I thought enough is enough on the old-style gothic font, and I inked the edges of the tag in red.

Then it occurred to me that some black balloons wafting up through the pop-up would be fun. So I found my balloon template and used plain black paper, then added red embroidery floss for the balloon strings.

And big sister had childhood photos that I was able to scan and print, to complete the card.  And I must admit, I had a lot of fun making this card!