A special card for a special lady!

My lovely sister-in-law Susan will be celebrating her 60th birthday on Wednesday this week.  I've been putting the finishing touches to her card this afternoon and I thought I'd share it with you.  It's a 'cascade' fold card and I decided to use the fabulous Mixed Bunch stamp set - I totally love this set because of the size of the largest flower and the fact that there is a matching punch!  The single cascade fold is one of my favourite fancy folds as it's easy to achieve but looks really impressive.  It's even easier when you use a Stampin' Up simply scored scoring board and trimmer! ;-)

Susan loves all things purple so I used 'Perfect Plum' as the base card colour and then wanted to make the card pack a punch with summer colours so I stamped the flowers in 'Wisteria Wonder', 'Calypso Coral' and 'Melon Mambo'.  The green accents were added by punching out leaves using the two step bird punch and some 'Old Olive' card stock.

Now, what do you think of the 'floating' glittery 60?  I achieved this by using some cellophane strips which just happened to be on my desk as a piece of waste from the Delicate Details Lace Tape which I used to trim the bottom of the card.  This tape comes on a small roll and is backed onto a cello strip which works perfectly to make things fly off a card - I can't wait to have a play with some bees I've been thinking about!!

Here is a close-up of the numbers and you can hardly see the cello but those numbers really dance and stand out.

I worked hard on layering the flowers to make the card really look like a mixed bunch just as the stamp set describes it, I think I achieved it!  The finishing touches came from a few rhinestones and by stamping the 'Happiest Birthday' sentiment (which comes from Apothecary Art stamp set) in white craft ink and I added some sparkle by using some dazzling diamonds glitter after using heat and stick powder.

We'll be celebrating her special birthday on Sunday when we're having a party at our new home for her and our family.