Diamonds are Forever

Today is my Mum and Dad's 60th, or Diamond, Anniversary.  Whichever way you look at it, THAT"S a long time :-)  I made this card for them, with love.

It's been hard to get time to blog, February is a busy month: Not only is it my folks' anniversary (for which I am decorating a cake as well as this card. oh and celebrating with a wine cruise on our beautiful Swan River), it is our (33rd!!!!) Anniversary on the 17th, my sons 30th Birthday on the 18th (cake, card and celebration!) and of course Valentines Day is in there too!  On top of all that, we're still trying to finish the decorating we started during the Christmas break - oh and did I mention that it's silly season for the swimming pool industry?  I have a few projects in the pipeline too for All That Scraps new digi release next week: They're super cute, you won't want to miss them!

Anyway, back to this card.  I used a textured pearlised cream card, the texture doesn't show up much in the photo but it is very nice - it looks like linen.  I embossed the centre panel with Cuttlebugs Argyle embossing folder, I thought the diamond shapes were very fitting.  The crystals are Swarowski AB, hard to capture the sparkle but as close to Diamonds as they're going to get! - appropriate too, as we all chipped in and bought a beautiful Swarowski sculpture as their anniversary gift.

The lace border is made from pink pearl card using Martha Stewarts Doily Lace border punch, embossed with Cuttlebugs Swiss Dots embossing folder.  I inked the edge with slightly darker pink to add a bit of dimension.  The frame around my parent's photo is cut from the same paper using Nestabilities Labels 12.  I used a photo I took at my mum's 80th birthday, they look pretty good for 161 years old, don't they? :-)  The sentiment is computer generated and the "forever" embellishment is what gave me the inspiration for the card in the first place!  Some ribbon and flowers from my stash completed a straightforward card.  

I've got to say though, that this card took some time to complete - I decorated the inside front cover (which I don't usually do) because I wanted to finish the ribbon off nicely and threading it through is the best way (if you're not wanting bows on the front of the card, which I didn't) - in the end I didn't need bows anyway as the joins are quite neat!   I haven't given them the card yet (tonight) and I'm still toying with adding bows, "to bow or not to bow, that is the question" :-)

I was left then with finishing the inside back of the card neatly - same problem, didn't want joins/bows there so threaded the ribbon through and  had to finish the outside back of the card.  Oh well, it got finished in the end, and it is for my parents special day, so "worth it".

I'm entering this card in Pink Gem's challenge for this week "Ribbon and Lace", now you can use any image for this challenge, so I'm hoping my parent's beaming faces is image enough, lol, and Crazy 4 Challenges has a Vintage theme: this card, while not so shabby chic, has a real vintage feel - (no, I don't mean my parents are Vintage, though perhaps that IS the case?!)  Totally Gorjuss has "As You Like It" - and as I did this card from my heart (without themes or sketches in mind) this is obviously as I like it!!  Happy Anniversary Darling Mum and Dad.

Thanks for visiting me today, until next time Happy Crafting, Dee