Happy 70th Anniversary

I recently learned that a former minister I knew a long time ago is celebrating his 70th anniversary with his wife. What a rare milestone! So I "had" to make them a card--just a no-brainer. I took my inspiration from this card that I found via Pinterest. I looked up what the symbolic gift is for the 70th anniversary. In the U.K., it was listed as platinum. Oddly, for the U.S., there was no gift listed! So I tried to incorporate some platinum accents, mostly in the foil I used for the patterned paper & the pearlized cardstock I cut the birds from.

I started by die cutting my birds, using an old Sizzix die, "Bird & Leaf." The die actually faces only one way, so for the "male" bird, I flipped the die cut over. Thankfully, the cardstock I used is the same front & back, so I didn't have to think too much. ;) I also used the same die to cut just the wing from some green plaid paper for the male bird, and a pink doily paper for the female bird.

I used a piece of 6x6" patterned paper from Heidi Swapp for the larger panel on my card. The leaves/vines are actually toner, so I foiled the paper with Heidi Swapp Gunmetal foil & my mini Minc machine. I cut the piece down to 5.5x6". I used a Spellbinders "Standard Circles LG" die to die cut the hole for the female bird to peek out of. After gluing the bird in the window, I used the next larger die to cut a circle from brown cardstock, and layered that behind the hole, gluing the rest of the bird to it as well.

For the top panel, I used 2 scrap pieces of teal blue cardstocks. I die cut the bottom edge of both at the same time, with one of the "Stitched Borders 3" dies by Pretty Pink Posh. That way, I could be sure the scallops would line up. I layered the lighter piece over the darker, and adhered them together.

I cut a label using one of the "Grommet Tags" dies from Spellbinders from white cardstock, and printed my greeting (which I'd created in Photoshop) on that. I added it to my blue panel with 2 mini heart brads. Then I adhered both of my main panels to a white A9 card base.

I felt the bottom part of the card needed a little something. I tried just a strip of teal cardstock, but that was too blah. I cut the long edges with decorative-edge scissors, but that looked even worse! I experimented with lace trim, but finally decided just to use an old Martha Stewart border punch to punch a strip, backed it with white cardstock, and fussy cut the white along the top edge. Finally, I glued that to the bottom of my card front--perfect!

For the finishing touches, I glued googly eyes on the birds with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I die cut a little pink heart with Simon Says Stamp's "Mini Hearts Outline" dies, and glued it between the birds. For a bit of added sparkle, I coated the heart with Diamond Stickles, and also added drops of that to the flower centers in the bottom border. Hopefully the happy couple will enjoy this card!

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Things with Wings"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Use More than One Die or Punch"
Die Cut Divas "For the Love of Animals/Pets" (Hopefully the birds count!)
613 Avenue Create: "Anything Goes"