Shamrock 60th Birthday

A good choir friend of mine turns 60 later this month and she's also retiring.  She's having a big party and the whole choir is invited so I've made up this A5 sized card so everyone can sign!  She's Irish, and despite living in Luxembourg for many decades now and speaking multiple languages, her Irish heritage is still very much part of her identity, so shamrocks seemed an obvious starting point - especially with St Patrick's Day approaching and the plethora of challenges at the moment from which to draw inspiration.   

 I originally had a cleaner card in mind and cut a shamrock cut from this paper which I was going to use as a spinner element but I was daunted by so much white space - it's an A5 card front so none of my background dies or embossing folders were large enough.   So I changed it to a patterned background and my plan was to cut a golden shamrock but honestly it looked a little too gimmicky for such an important birthday celebration!

So I thought I'd use a butterfly as the spinner element - she loves butterflies!  The first butterfly I cut was a Tim Holtz Brushstroke Butterfly - an NBUS item I'd been dying (excuse the pun) to use!   It looked lovely but it had an awkward centre of gravity and didn't spin very well!  It will have to wait for another day - another St Patrick's Day perhaps because it was cut in green and gold!  Instead, I used this old favourite Tattered Lace Oriental Butterfly die. 

Since I didn't have any gold card stock strong enough to cut it from, I went with green.   A spinning element really needs to be sturdy but I didn't relish the idea of layering a die cut this intricate (and big)! This green card stock is quite thick, so sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of spinning backwards and forwards across a card front.  I then added gilding wax to the butterfly!  Previous attempts with gilding wax were unsuccessful - I had underestimated how light your touch needs to be!  Watching a recent Chrissie Stokes video I realized where I was going wrong and was much happier with this effort! 

 I did look like a Bond villain afterwards through, with my gold finger! 🤣 

Then it was just a matter of sorting out where to put Happy Birthday, her name and a "60" using dies from my stash (the shamrock I used in place of the 0 was a really old punch).  I added a "sweet" (Deco Time) before the 60 - she is after all pretty excited about her upcoming retirement!  I added gilding wax to all these and then glossy accents - I love how the gilding wax has highlighted the embossing on the letters in her name.

The inside is an A4 sheet folded attached to the right side of the card base.  I've added a good luck sentiment and a potted plant - for luck!  I might also add another folded sheet on the other side (with perhaps some school items because she's retiring from teaching) - there will need to be space for 20 + people to sign! 

Here's a video of the butterfly in flight

I would like to enter the following challenges

The Card Concept Challenge #190

Colour Hues Challenge #59

Traumfabrik Challenge #113 which has the movie Luck as its inspiration this month

Double D Challenges which has this brilliant inspiration photo

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate