A Special Birthday Card

Hi everybody.  Today I'm showing the card I made for hubby's birthday which was actually yesterday.  I am using a set of dies from Globleland featuring a frame of books and which also has an open book which I have amalgamated into the frame and which I am using for the first time.  I am also using a set of dies from Spellbinders called Balloons and Birthday Wishes and which I am also using for the first time.  I have also used paper from a pad bought from The Range, and an embossing folder from Creative Expressions which I have had for ages.

I started with a piece of blue card and embossed it using the folder and cut it to fit a 6" square card, and then I cut the book frame from silver mirri card and I removed a section of the books from the bottom of the frame and then backed this with a piece of lighter blue card and added the open book to the gap at the bottom of the frame raised up a little with a piece of  3D foam tape behind it and added this to the card.  I then die cut the balloons from white card and the strings from the same card as I used for the embossed background.  I found an appropriate piece of paper from the pad which has the look of alcohol inking in shades of blue and I used different parts of the sheet to get a variety of looks for the four balloons and cut and adhered them to the white ones.  I then heat embossed them using Versamark and WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder, and did this twice to build up the shine, and I added a string to each and added them one at a time using bits of the foam tape behind them to make a nice bunch and cut the string to fit behind the frame at the bottom.  I finished by adding the birthday sentiment in white which I cut twice to give it more rigidity...there are a set of sentiment plates which you can add then onto, but this time I just added them without, and then finished with the white numbers on the balloon. 

On the face of it seems a very straight forward card, but I had left it rather late making it as I at first was not sure what to do but I settled on the book frame because he does love to read and I thought the balloons and sentiment sat over it nicely and were a fun look.  I had put it together and was adding the sentiment and somehow glue go spattered onto it and the air was blue, but luckily I wiped it off immediately and it didn't mark..phew!!  Our son wanted to do something special for this milestone birthday and so has arranged a lovely venue and we have some family and friends coming along in a week's time to have a lovely lunch.  It is a very old manor house with a barn in the grounds which we have the use of, and we have someone to cater, so all we need is a nice day so we can sit outside in the grounds and enjoy the lovely surroundings, and Stewart has now arrived from Australia and is here until the end of the month which is great. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon. 

I am entering the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - No. 827 For A Child/Anything Goes.

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Emboss It.

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge - Anything Goes/In The Sky.

NBUS Challenge - No. 76 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.