Birthday Card for Wonderwoman’s Mum

Wonderwoman is my home help. Her name says it all. I don’t know what I’d do without her. Here she is cleaning our patio doors last summer.

You can see what a fine job she is doing of it.

Her mum is going to be 70 in May, and she’s asked me if I would make a really special card for her to give her, and of course I said yes. I am so grateful for all she does for me and it’s lovely to be able to give something back.

She tells me her mum has a very bold colour scheme in her living room, and it would be nice to match that, so that hopefully she will keep the card up on her display cabinet long after the birthday! The colours we have chosen are black, white, gold and charcoal grey, with a splash of vivid red.

I am going to make a card in the shape of an open book, with the pages gently curving, and a ribbon bookmark down the centre. Wonderwoman has written some words that she would like me to put on one of the pages, and I shall probably make it so that you can lift up the pages and see the ones underneath, on which I am going to put some photographs she will provide – I shall probably make these into layouts with my Serif CraftArtist software and print them out, and then cut the page shape.

The whole card will be decorated with three-dimensional roses, and then I shall make a presentation box, also decorated with flowers, and with an acetate window in the top so that the card is visible. Since this isn’t a traditional sort of card that opens so that you can stand it up, I shall also make a separate stand for it, so she can display it out of the box if she wants to.

I haven’t made a card like this before, so it’s an exciting project. My mum will be 90 in April and I am going to make her a similar one, but in different colours. I am planning to make these two cards in tandem – our oldest nephew is getting married in August and I might make them one as well.

On Thursday Wonderwoman announced that on her next birthday (also in April) she is going to be 50, so that’s another special card I must make – obviously I can’t do one the same as her mum’s so I’ve got to think – and quickly! I would also like to make her a special present but not sure what yet.

Anyway, back to her mum’s card. I contacted my friend Wendy and she’s kindly sent me some measurements for the book shape, as she’s made lots like this, and I am designing the shape in Serif DrawPlus X4, eventually to be exported as an svg cut file to cut with Jiminy Cricut using Make The Cut software.

Yesterday I cut out several sheets of shapes from Penny Duncan’s flower cut files – see my Blog List for her address – she has designed numerous cut files which can be downloaded free of charge. This particular one is called “rose design” and is a three-dimensional, extremely realistic rose which can be cut in any size, and in any colour, and decorated as you choose.

For this card, I have decided to use some rather special black cardstock I have got, which has an iridescent finish, and is a nice weight. This is what I cut the shapes from, and today I have hand embossed them and painted the edges with gold Perfect Pearls before assembling them according to Penny Duncan’s instructions on her excellent video tutorial. Here is the result.

Even with a PureLite bulb and some colour balance adjustment in Serif PhotoPlus, it is still hard to get the picture to do these flowers justice. You can barely see the gold – anything shiny or iridescent is notoriously hard to photograph, but believe me, they look very rich and the gold reflects the light beautifully. With the slight sheen on the black card, they look as if they are made of metal, which is just the effect I wanted.

Here’s a close up of one of them.

I think Penny is extremely clever to have worked out how to make roses as realistic as this, and to design a series of flat shapes to cut out in order to make it. I really don’t know how she did it! Anyway I’m grateful to her for her inspiration, generosity and encouragement in all she does.

Watch this space – I’ll be updating my blog as I progress with this card, and my mum’s.