WMSC9: It's a Small World After All

I hope you're all having a wonderful start to the week! I have two friends who are celebrating their birthdays on the same day at the end of the month. I met Eileen years ago when I was doing volunteer work and I met Simmer at my most recent job with a big four audit firm. Simmer's sister, Sally, ended up working with Eileen at the same hospital where I used to volunteer. When Eileen told Sally that I worked at the same firm as her sister, Sally asked Simmer if she knew me. With a staff of over 2500 in the Toronto office, what were the chances that Simmer shared an office with me?! It's a small world indeed. I probably should've bought a lottery ticket that day. ;)

I decided to use this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #9 to make birthday cards for Eileen and Simmer. Normally, I'm not inspired by sketches at all but the second I saw this one, ideas started forming in my head so I had to use it. Besides, it's one of the most beautifully laid out sketches I've ever seen!

For the sentiment, I knew I was going to use a PTI die cut label and I thought the giant flourish would look beautiful with it. I stamped that first with Kiwi Kiss on Kraft, affixed the label (after stamping the frame and sentiment), then restamped the flourish over the label in watermark ink. Then I heat embossed sparkly tinsel to the label to show a continuation of the flourish. This tinsel is so sparkly and pretty in real life but it's extremely difficult to photograph!

I die cut flowers using PTI's gorgeous felt in three colours and created centres for them. For the circles and centres of the flowers, I used the dandelion image from Unity's June 2010 KOTM and PTI's Text Style II. When I arranged the flowers, they didn't look right so I added a button with hemp cord and a small circle on the end which completed the sketch nicely. I purposely cut this card base at 4" x 5.5" so it would be a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card with the circle and flowers hanging over both sides. I really don't want to part with these but at least I'll know they'll be loved! Well, they better be. :Þ

Sources: SU Kraft & Naturals Ivory cardstock; Unity June 2010 Kit of the Month - Fly Free; PTI Fancy Flourishes; PTI Background Basics: Text Style II; PTI Fillable Frames #4; PTI Up, Up and Away; SU Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss & Taken With Teal inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Versamark Watermark ink; PSX Sparkle embossing tinsel; Hobby Hot Boss; PTI Beautiful Blooms II #2 die collection; PTI 100% wool felt in Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores & Simply Chartreuse; PTI Fillable Frames #4 die; QuicKutz Epic Six; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; Darice hemp cord; Basic Grey buttons; Glue Dots pop up relief