50th Anniversary Card

A couple my mom is friends with is celebrating their golden wedding anniversary this weekend. So of course, she asked me to make a card for them, which I gladly agreed to do. I did a search on Pinterest for 50th anniversary cards, and found this one that I used as my inspiration. I have the Stampin' Up owl punch, and their "Woodland Textures" embossing folder already, and the rest I made up/figured out as I went along.

I began with the owls. I punched all the pieces, and punched an extra chest piece for the man owl from black to cut into a vest, as in the inspiration card. I also cut a couple of beaks from yellow-orange cardstock. It's always bothered me that the punch does not include a separate beak piece, because I don't like leaving the beak area the same color as the body. So I had to cut my own, which took a few tries to get the size right, but I prevailed! :) After I had all the pieces cut/punched, I assembled the owls. I also added "buttons" to the vest with a white gel pen.

For the skirt on the lady owl's dress, I used a Martha Stewart "Vintage Floral" border punch. After I punched a piece of white cardstock, I cut it into a strip and pleated the upper edge. I had more trouble with that than any other part of the card. I finally got everything glued together to make it look like a ruffled skirt, but the "waistband" looked hideous to me. I looked again at the sample card, & noticed a bow at the owl's waist, so I tied a double bow with 1/8" wide blue satin ribbon. I glued it to the owl over the pleats, let the glue dry, and further tacked it down with a small stitch through the back of the knot and the owl. I didn't want that bow to go anywhere! I think it covers the (ugly) pleats quite well. :)

I created the greeting in Photoshop, and printed it on a strip of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper with my laser printer. I ran that through my Mini Minc machine, with Heidi Swapp Gold foil. For the numbers, I initially was going to print them on the back of my cardstock, and fussy cut them. I did try that, but it was horrible, so I instead used my old Fiskars shape cutter & their "Letters-1" to cut them from gold mirror cardstock & black. I ran the numbers through my Xyron Sticker Maker, and adhered the gold over the black, offsetting to give a shadow.

To create the background, I cut a panel of Canson XL Mixed Media paper to 4.25x5.5". I inked up one side of my embossing folder with Broken China Distress Oxide ink, being careful not to ink up along the bottom "ground." I spritzed my paper lightly with water, and ran it through my die cutting machine with the inked folder. Much to my surprise, it came out pretty well, with the ink mostly just where I wanted it! I did have to go over several spots on the trees with a white gel pen where the ink had "leaked," but overall not too bad. I used Mowed Lawn Distress ink and a water brush to paint the ground area to look like grass.

Finally, it was time to assemble my card. I adhered the numbers in place, and glued down the owls. I backed the greeting strip with a narrow black mat, to create a visual triangle among that, the black number shadows, and the black vest, and adhered it to my background. I mounted the panel to a white A2 card base, and this card is done! My mom really liked it, and hopefully the happy couple will, too!

I'm entering this card in 613 Avenue Create's Challenge #208: "Anything Goes."