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!

A Tale of Two Cards

I recently had the opportunity to create two 'thinking of you' cards, so I decided to craft them at the same time, using the same group of papers. They are similar on the outside, but the insides were customized for the inidivual person receiving the card.

So I dug through my stash of papers, which continues to grow, and decided on soft colors.  I have so much paper and so many crafting tools now that I sometimes forget what I have!

The fancy tags on the front I made with my favorite new tag-making template (from www.paperwishes.com) that I got for Mother's Day from my #2 son.  I just love this template!  It has several different tags on it, all with different styles, all with those great layers built right in, which makes it super easy to create really pro-looking tags that perfectly match your project.  I'm just looking for ways to use this template these days, and there's another one now, which I don't have, yet....

At this point I sat and looked at the cards for a while, and decided that flowers were in order. So I dug through my paper stash again, this time my scrap stash, to find matching solid colors. And then I dug through my bin of punches to find my various different flower punches and little circle punches.  And I created the flowers, layering smaller flowers inside bigger ones, and punching out flowers around flowers on the paper, and adding itty bitty circles in the middle of some.  Then I played around with the flowers on the page until I was happy, and added a bit of lace down the left side.

Then on to the insides, which were very different.

For the insides I looked at my collection of sentiments and matching embellishments and I was lucky enough to find things that I liked and that matched my choice of papers. Oh yeah! I love it when I have exactly what I want! I then added the hearts, which I punched out myself from matching papers, and created the 'thinking of you' tags.  Deckle edge scissors and ink fancied up the edges of the papers for a more decorative look.  And then they were off, the old-fashioned way, via snail mail.