1/2 a Birthday!

Could you take a card like this

And do this to it??

Trust me...it was NOT easy!! I kept thinking...all my hard work!!

At work, when someone has a birthday, we all bring in cards. One of my co-workers has a birthday on December 25th and her family has always celebrated it on July 25th so she did not get cheated. We decided to do the same. Someone came up with the idea...let's give her only 1/2 the card! We will save the other 1/2 for December. Great idea right?

Well easy for everyone else...they buy their cards.

So I had to come up with an idea that would be easy to cut so my card started with the idea of using the Stair Step folding technique. That way both pieces would stand up on their own. All my images, except for the lady in the middle section (she was RAK'd to me), came from the set "On the Beach Set" and were stamped on Georgia Pacific (GP) with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Blick Markers. GP along with Memento Dye Inks seems to work best with alcohol markers. No wait time, no bleeding or smudges at all!

For the scene in the background..

1st. I stamped where I wanted my images to be on the GP cardstock and did all the image coloring first.

2nd. I took a scrap paper, held it where I wanted the sand to end and used a marker to color in the sand making sure to color behind the girls a little darker to represent the shading from the sun.

3rd. I moved the scrap paper up to where the ocean and the sky would meet and colored in the water with a marker

4th. I punched out a circle to mask where the sun would be and used removable tape to hold the sun in place

5th. I used plastic piece cut to represent clouds and I used a sponge dabbed with blue ink to make the sky and clouds

6th. I removed my mask and colored the sun in with bright yellow

7th. I stamped Happy Birthday with black ink

The poem was created by my sister Faye and in case you can't read it..here is what it said..

Today we celebrate your birthday

but only half....I fear

Its not really your special day

until the end of the year

One half a card is all you'll get

Put it away where you'll remember

Cuz you don't get the other half

Until your birthday in December!!!

I took the fun one step further and actually cut the card while it was sealed in the envelope making sure the poem remained intact so she would get that 1/2 of the card first. She loved the whole 1/2 theme!!

She said she can't wait to see the rest of my card.

An online friend saw the card and suggested I decorate the 2nd 1/2 with a Christmas theme and I loved that idea!

Thanks Joyce...lots of ideas floating in my head so stay tuned!!