WWC65 - Happy Birthday

This week's challenge is an "Anything Goes" challenge which is such fun!  I love that I can create anything I want and then post it for the challenge.  In this case, it's a perfect fit for me because I needed a super-special birthday card for my one-and-only daughter and didn't want to have to create anything based on any parameters except my own, whichever way inspiration led me.

This card is for my daughter's birthday.  Each year I try to come up with something new which my daughter has never seen before, to surprise and delight her.  It gets harder every year.  For this year's card I made what I call a modified gate fold card.  Considering that I created the bottom to frame the top, it took a lot of measuring, re-measuriong, and, in some cases, re-cutting.  But, in the end, it was worth it.

The back of my card allows some writing but is decorated with some subtle stamping.  You can see the open gates at the side.

The front of my card, with the bottom gate closed, is pretty but wait until it opens for the full "wow" factor.

Yes, there's a fair bit of Marina Mist in the card.  My daughter loves blue and this one is a particularly beautiful blue.  I combined it with Soft Suede which compliments it very well.  The lattice work?  Well, I cut two pieces of Whisper White with the retiring Striped Scallop Thinlits and then placed one upside down on the other to create the design.  I had already cut the curve of the gate and so I traced it, placed the tracing on Whisper White and cut a thin white shape to go around the lattice work.  Once the flowers were attached, as well as the leaves, it looked just right.  I added the "happy birthday" on a Whisper White tag cut using the Tags and Labels framelits and then cut a second with the next size up to create the Soft Suede base.

You can see how much prettier the card is once it's open.  I love the flowers and the colours that are exposed.  The sponging behind the bird also echoes those colours.  The bird was the most difficult part of this entire project.  Cutting it out, including each tiny toe and toenail, was definitely an effort of love.  Or so I kept telling myself.

Stamps used:  An Open Heart (retired), Picture Perfect, Endless Birthdays, Awesomely Artistic, Birthday Blossoms, Timeless Textures

Paper:  Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Watermelon Wonder, Pear Pizzazz

Inks:  Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Watermelon Wonder, So Saffon, Blushing Bride,                  Wisteria Wonder, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake

Tools: Woodgrain embossing folder, Decorative Dots embossing folder (retired), Paper Snips, Striped Scallop Thinlit (retired), Tags & Labels framelits, Ovals collection framelits (retired), Botanical Builder framelits, Owl Builder Punch

I hope you'll visit the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge to check out the cards created by the other Watercooler Artists.  I'd love to see your card linked up sometime this week.

I also decided to enter my card into the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge for their "Anything Goes".