Whimsy Stamps ~ Break On Through To The Other Side...

Hey crafty friends, we just celebrated one of our dearest friends 50th birthday and he had a lovely gathering of nearest and dearest for the event. A wee bit nerve-wracking in the midst of our Omicron outbreak here in New Zealand, but we braved it masked up and had a very special night celebrating him. He's rather special to us, as he's one of our oldest mutual friends. We've all known each other since we were teens! In fact, we used to flat together. So there's a long history of mischief and shenanigans, that gets revisited every once in a while. It was necessary then, to make him a tongue in cheek birthday card to celebrate the big occasion. 

I was reminded of the song by The Doors - Break On Through, when creating this card. The imagery of the fabulous revealer die, giving you a peek of another world. We so dread these 'big birthdays' when we get to a certain age and it felt fitting to create this design with visual imagery depicting him breaking through to the other side of 50! I'm sure it wasn't lost on him. But what will have made him giggle and possibly do a double take, is actually what is inside the card, which the stamp set shown in the image above hints to. When I first saw this set, I honestly thought, who would I ever create a card with 'that' sentiment for? But I've already used it and have plans to again soon! Cheeky, but oh so fun!

When I was adding the revealer panel of vellum to the card front, I completely forgot to first back it with double sided adhesive paper. So I added this after doing the die-cutting, but I adhered it slightly askew. There was a strip of sticky showing above the actual paper and I didn't want to hand trim it and wreck the lovely die-cut edge, so I went for plan B and covered it with some lovely dark loose glitter to create a sparkly edge, a happy accident I think, as I really love how it looks!

The fabulous space themed paper is a wonderful slimline set from Whimsy Stamps that is full of brilliant 'other-wordly' scenes. I think this paper worked a treat for this design and the cheeky stamped interior is a fun unexpected extra when the card is opened. I added another cheeky sentiment on the back too, so our friend is sure to have got a few giggles out of this card! The gold '50' is an American Crafts Alphabet Thicker, which added just the right understated touch for this element of the card. I was limited on supplies for this creation, as it was soon after we'd moved I created it and there was still so much boxed up. I'm still finding supplies, but this really was 'craft out of a paper bag', kind of crafting! So although it's a pretty simple design, I was really happy with what I was able to pull together to celebrate our friends 50th. It really was a fun night, as his closest pals had created a Hawaiian shirt which they all wore with his face as part of the design! A silly, but oh so fun part of the night! My little boy Zac loved it so much, he stole his daddy's one and wore it for mufti day that next week! Hehe.

Our lovely pal's wife, who is one of my besties, has the finest taste for beautiful birthday cakes, so I just thought I'd share this delight with you. It had a beautiful candy moon topper and gold foiled chocolate trimmings. It's surrounded by yummy hazelnut macarons and there were the yummiest doughnuts for dessert! Lemon and Salted Caramel, both utterly delicious.

Finally, here's my cheeky boy in his daddy's shirt. The shirts caused such a sensation on the night and Zac had so much fun wearing his daddy's one for his school mufti day. It was quite the talking point at school, as you can imagine!

I've been tired this week, two negative Covid tests in as many weeks for my small boy and a hubby who's feeling really run down, I was half expecting that last test to be positive! But so far, the bug has stayed away from our house. It's just a matter of time I fear however, as it's all through Zac's school at the moment. I hope you're all staying safe and well. I think things will ramp up here as we move into Autumn and Winter, but hope it stays away until we're all feeling a wee bit more resilient. I wish you a wonderful week and happy crafty days. Hugs xoxo