95th Birthday Celebration
March 19, 2020
Hi there
Firstly, I hope you are all safe and well. We are facing challenging times with restrictions on our normal activities. There is no better time to de-stress and get creative with the extra time you maybe having at home. Get everyone involved in the fun of being creative!
I'm back from a week visiting family in Western Australia. We had a special milestone birthday to celebrate with my lovely mother-in-law Betty turning 95. Isn't that a great achievement and she is so amazing; still living independently; driving and playing for her church service every week. She has an amazing capacity for doing complex puzzles, Sudoku, jigsaws and word games on the computer. We got her an iMac for her 75th birthday and has progressed through several Windows PCs and more recently a new laptop last Christmas so she can enjoy it sitting in her arm chair. She is a real inspiration.
We celebrated this milestone with a little event, where she invited her friends to join her for lunch on a cruise down the Swan River. I made some invitations, keeping it very simple, using the lovely Noble Peacock Specialty Designer Paper on a black card base. She loves the teal shades, so I chose the Pretty Peacock design.
This is a standard sized (metric) card using the gate fold and I've added a belly band to keep it closed. The embellishment is a circle with the popped up numbers in Silver Glimmer using the retired Large Numbers Dies. The black mini dimensionals were fabulous for it.
The invitation insert was created with my computer and I printed it on Whisper White card stock, feeding it through the rear slot.
Of course, I had to make a special card to recognise this milestone as well. Music has been a huge part of her life; as a music specialist in education and working with community choirs and more recently with her church. I took inspiration from the card created by Dawn Olchefske , using her Music From The Heart stamp set. Betty has a baby grand piano in her lounge room, so I wanted to create a design that looked very similiar to her piano.
The card base uses Black Foil sheet to give that gorgeous glossy look and the keys use retired Glossy White card stock. I created a template for the top of the piano using various dies and then hand cut it from Black Foil as I didn't want any marks from die cutting. This is an easel card, with a shallower angle as the curve of the piano on the right is a lot deeper. I tied some retired Stitched Satin Ribbon in Real Red around the top of the piano, finishing with a bow. The sheet music embellishment, which is the actual music for the 'Happy Birthday To You' tune was created with my computer and printed on Whisper White card stock. I added a scalloped circle in Black Foil and the numbers in Gold Glimmer using the retired Little Numbers Dies.
To keep the top of the piano in position when the card is open, I used a set of small neodymium magnets. One magnet is attached to the tab on the underside of the piano top and the other is on the reverse side of the card. When the card is removed from the envelope, the magnets pop together to create the easel.
Being an easel card, the top of the piano folds down over the keys and fits into a 14cm (5 1/2") square envelope. I stamped the piano image from the Music From My Heart stamp set in the bottom corner of the envelope and coloured the heart with Stampin' Blends. This photo shows the lovely glossiness of the Black Foil and it adds a real 'wow' to the card.
The writing panel is on the reverse side and I have added a Real Red mat and these layers cover the second magnet. I have used more of the images from the Music From My Heart stamp set to decorate the bottom edge.
Finally, here is picture of the birthday girl, cutting her cake.
| Project Details | |
| Stamps | Music From My Heart |
| Card stock & Papers | Whisper White, Real Red, Black Foil, Glossy White (retired), Gold Glimmer |
| Ink | Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Basic Gray |
| Accessories | Real Red Stitched Satin Ribbon (retired) |
| Tools | Big Numbers Dies (retired), Little Numbers Dies (retired), Layering Circles Dies, Layering Ovals Dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, Stampin' Blends (Real Red) |
If you don't have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I would love to help you out. Place an order with me for $50 or more using the current month's Host Code (shown in the side bar on the right) and you will receive the March IDEAS Tutorial Bundle for FREE (normally $10). It contains 55 pages of craft projects featuring Fun & Fancy Fold Cards. I will email you the PDF file within 24 hours of your order being confirmed. With an order of $90 or more, you can earn a FREE Sale-a-bration product.
Thanks for visiting me today!
WOW Love your card. Thanks for sharing how you made it.
Posted by: Kate S | March 19, 2020 at 10:39 PM