I just LOVE Birthdays!!

What better excuse to jump in my craft room and start creating than celebrating a special someones birthday! I have been so busy with school and family that my Mother n Laws birthday coming up finally got my butt in gear to make something. :) I had so much fun with her card that I kept going and made everything for her gift wrap too. Normally I might run to the store and get a nice bag and then jazz it up a bit. However, now that I realized what you can come up with when you use supplies from around the house... I don't know if I will ever want to buy regular gift wrap anymore! ( If I can help it)
For this card, I decided I wanted to go a little less traditional and tried to avoid using the always easy "Happy Birthday" for the front. When I stumbled upon this beautiful paper I have had stowed away for a while now; I knew it was perfect!! The line is Lost & Found from My Minds Eye. At first I thought it was a little on the "wedding" side but decided the elegance would set the mood for my theme on the card and wrapping. This is a little out of what I would consider my normal style. Now that I am done with this project... I think I found a new love for this shabby chic look!! :)
For the Main Card base I used a plain white cardstock and folded it in half. The white was some of my leftovers so the size is a little off from a standard card. To give you an idea of size my main base was 11" x 6 3/4" , so when folded in have that gave me 5 1/2" by 6 3/4". Next I took the dark gray side of Portobello Road "family" Brocade paper (lost and found collection) and cut a basic rectangle for my border. Then using my trimmer I made another basic rectangle shape with the blue and white side of Portobello Road "party" celebrate Paper to show as my main background. On the opposite side of that blue and white stripped cardstock you will find the main centerpiece for the card that says Celebrate. Using my Tim Holtz scissors (they are pointy to they work great) I simply cut out around the sentiment. Once this was cut out I used some silver Stickles and circled the date on the little calender to represent my mother n laws birthday. The Silver matches the glitter on the paper almost perfectly! Lastly, I cut a little 5" x 1 1/4" strip from the opposite side of Portobello Road "family". Once all of your paper is cut, you can attach your pieces in order (starting with the back dark gray rectangle) and glue with a dry adhesive. The only paper that I glued differently is the Celebrate... I used pop dots for dimension. Make sure you attach the pop dot piece last. You have to glue your small strip of paper with Ribbon and bow first so that its tucked back behind the Celebrate.
For the inside, I cut a simple rectangle out of the brocade that was used on the outside to tie the card together. This piece will act as a border for the plain script piece of paper that will work for your message so that its easily readable.
For the gift I made some flowers out of orange felt and the big flower out of cream felt and lace. The 2 orange flowers were super easy and required scissors and only a little hot glue. However, I will admit that even though the big flower was simple it was rather time consuming. Leave it to me to have it all together before I think to take picture of the process. If you want details on the step by step for this just send me a message and I will be glad to type it up for you. I will say that for the big cream flower, I did attach a pin to the back so that it could be worn or attached to a bag or purse later. Also if you look close to the orange roses you will see the prettiest little vintage stick pins that I got from Jenni Bowlin. These are one of my favorite finds ever!!! They are just the perfect accent!! To wrap my gift, I just used 3 sheets of plain white tissue paper to keep from seeing the gift through the paper. I then tied a thick piece of lace around the body of the gift to jazz it up! Once the lace was on and tied in a knot, I was able to attach the flowers with pins to really set it off.
I hope you liked this card and gift... I know I can't wait to give it to Leslie my Mother n Law. Happy Birthday Leslie!