Marie Nutcracker Birthday Card

My "Bug" is turning three next month. Where did time go? Seems like just yesterday I was driving over to visit her as a baby. Anyway "Bug" has dancing in her soul and is definitely what I call a "free spirit". When she is home the only way her mom can launder the tutu is to grab it while "Bug" is in the tub. "Bug" lives for the days when she has dance. Oh and did I mention that she is very much a girly girl unlike her older sister.

I was trying to decide what to get her for her birthday as well as what to make her for a card. I figured the "Nutcracker" book would be too advanced for her and I didn't think she would sit still long enough to watch the "Nutcracker" on television if I got a DVD of it. Then I discovered that Susan Jeffers has illustrated the "Nutcracker" with minimal text. Being familiar with the illustrations that Susan Jeffers does I decided that is what I will get her for her birthday. In the book it is Marie which I think is the name in the original version but in the ballet at least the West Coast version I saw it is Clara.

Well to make a long story short when I was going through my massive collection of graphics from Dover Publication I came across images from the "Nutcracker". Then while looking through the book "Handmade Greeting Cards" I saw a beautiful card using triangles and loved the way they used them. From there the card pretty much made itself.

I used the knife tool in Studio Designer Edition to make the edge. The pink showing is actually another card base cut from shimmer card stock glued inside.The background of the card base is from Free Vector Graphics. I opened it up in Photoshop Elements and because I'm  lazy I did a copy in PE and paste in Studio. Once in Studio using the fill pattern option I mirrored it horizontally as I wanted the butterfly on the right. Marie is a print cut from the image I had on hand. The butterflies dancing around with her are cut from the background image and resized to fit. The sentiment came from a free weekly birthday card file which never did anything for me. I drew a rectangle around it and filled it in as well as the letters in Studio. I printed it on vellum.

  This is washed out a little color-wise in the photo but I wanted to try to show some of the shimmer and glitter. Unfortunately I never could really do this card justice taking photos. Both the green and the pink triangles are cut from DCWV cardstock. The pink inner card and the green are from their The Shimmer Stack. The pink glitter triangle is cut from their Street Lace. I'm pretty sure both of these pads are discontinued. I had not used the glitter cardstock cut setting in Studio and was pleased that it cut the DCWV glitter cardstock perfectly. (Even with a well used blade) In the past I had a hard time cutting it cleanly and clear through.(I'm a happy camper as I have several pads of it I bought a couple of years ago.) For the butterflies I wrapped magenta Karen Foster Scrap Floss around them to make their antennas and pop dotted them onto the card.

I hope "Bug" will enjoy her card and her book when her birthday rolls around.

Off to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!