A Surprise and The Reveal.

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Commemorative banner

My sister and brother-in-law celebrated their 30th anniversary on April 4th and we weren't going to let this benchmark occasion go by without all due recognition and celebration. When my nephew approached saying that he wanted to do something for his folks but had no idea where to start, my mother and I jumped on it. Surprise and subterfuge are my calling cards.

Keeping a surprise from my sister is no easy task and it required constant monitoring of my nephews actions to make sure neither of them did or said anything to give it away. This covert operation was stewing for over two weeks and I'm happy to say it was a complete success. Neither my sister nor her husband was the wiser and we caught them totally off guard in their own home!

Supersized envelope front

Photo star decorations

Needless to say I was busy creating gifts and decorations for the event that kept me up until the wee hours for more nights than I care to admit but it was all worth it.

Here you see some of the goodies I conjured out of paper for my favorite couple. A three foot banner featuring a photo of the couple on their wedding day spanned the doorway between the living and dining rooms. A cascade of gold and silver stars frames the banner on either side.

The "award" poster measures about 12" x 17".  It was the first piece I made and established the decorative theme of the party in precious metal tones of silver and gold, a golden yellow color and a star motif. It wasn't until I had completed the poster that I realized I had nothing suitable in which to present it so I had to create an envelope to fit. Fortunately I had sufficient quantities of this beautiful, large format silver paper to create a custom envelope complete with faux postage and a faux cancellation stamp. The back of the envelope sports three heart cut outs and two elastic closures. I also made star decorations featuring photos of the couple over the past 30 years on one side and the details of the celebration on the other. These photo decorations were casually placed all around the room and were given as favors for the guest to take home. There was also a heart shaped favor basket with a heart studded gold and silver bow filled with little pillow boxes containing chocolate truffles. The pillow boxes had custom belly bands that touted the couple and the occasion that was being celebrated.

Pillow box favors

Heart shaped favor basket & bow

For their greeting card I made one that emulated an arched window with a trellis and a window box filled with greenery and a climbing flowering vine. A close look at the window reveals tiered molding set against a brown background embossed to look like brick work. The leaves hanging over the edge of the window box reveals the tiniest of leaf vein details. Paper spike plants, one of my sister's favorites, line the inside of the window box while the tiniest of yellow blossoms with orange pearl centers dot the climbing vine. A few rhinestone flowers and a glittery butterfly (my trademark symbol) complete the vignette.

Window box greeting card

The event was a big success. My sister and her husband were completely surprised, their sons were pleased as punch to have been able to pull it off without anyone suspecting and the rest of us were just happy to be there in each other's company celebrating our family.

In addition, I learned a great deal about the capabilities of my new cutting machine and was able to come up with designs that I had never attempted before. Every project brings me a step closer to my ultimate goal of architectural paper sculpture. If I've learned nothing else, I have learned that if I can dream it, I can do it.

Onward and upward.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Creating Memories

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My parents flanked by my brothers

This past weekend I had the great privilege and honor of seeing my parents renew their wedding vows in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary. Given the divorce-riddled society we live in nowadays, such a milestone is rarely achieved. Such an occasion deserved nothing less than a tremendous effort on my part and I'm happy to say I delivered.

I chose a theme of butterflies and flowers in spring colors of

Matchbook favors in spring colors.

peach, blue and green and carried this theme throughout all the items. The favors, in spite of being the smallest of these items, turned out to be the most intricate and labor-intensive. Each matchbook was comprised of 15 individual pieces, all of which had to be cut one at a time. The butterfly alone is made up of four separate pieces. Although there were only 22 matchbooks, it took over a week of creating a prototype, tweaking it, then going into production. Once they were complete, I needed a means to carry them so they wouldn't be crushed or soiled. For this I used a bakery box and

A peek inside the favors

decorated the top to match the predetermined theme.

A decorated bakery box to hold the
favors.

There was one other thing I had to do last minute and that was to arrange and decorate my mother's bouquet. She didn't want to go through the expense of buying an expensive floral arrangement from a florist so she chose to purchase a dozen roses and some baby's breath from a local supermarket flower shop and handed them to me. She also gave me some silvery ribbon from which to fashion a bow. Inasmuch as I'm not a floral arranger, this prospect had me a little nervous but I'm happy to say that turned out beautifully as well. Unfortunately I neglected to photograph the finished bouquet, with its full, silvery bow, long sheer streamers and tissue paper wrapping hand stamped with watermarked images of hearts and butterflies.

The card I made to present
to my folks.

I then had to make a card for the occasion because, let's face it, Hallmark just wasn't going to cut it. Since I couldn't do any work on this project during the day, everything had to be done at night. I lost many hours of sleep but managed to finished everything in time AND managed to get some shut-eye before the big event.

Here are some of the materials I used to create the projects you see here. If you have any questions about how any of these was made, feel free to send me an email at gypsiwoman55@yahoo.com. 

• Bazzill Basics cardstock - Glass Slipper
• Colorbok Glitter Paper Pack - White
• Michael Miller Memories Fabric Paper (discontinued)
• Cutting Dies: 
• Paper Artist - Viney Swirl; 
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Floral Ovals; 
• Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 Scalloped Borders One
• Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 Curved Borders One
• Spellbinder Shapeabilities - Butterflies Two
• Memory Box - Vivienne Butterfly (for butterfly body)
• Embossing folders:
• ProvoCraft Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots
• Sizzix Textured Impressions - Elegant Lines
• Distress Stickles (Ranger Industries) - Stormy Sky, Wild Honey
• Inkssentials (Ranger Industries) - Glossy Accents
• Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue
• Miracle Tape (double-sided super sticky tape) - various widths
• Martha Stewart scoring board
• Fiskars 12" SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer
• Assorted scissors and craft knives
• Assorted bling and fabric flowers from my stash

This is by no means a comprehensive list but it does represent most of the materials I used for these projects. The length of the materials list alone should be an indication of how much work went into these items. Nevertheless I would do it all again in a heartbeat. For my mom and dad, anything.

Ballo ergo sum
 - Gitana, the Creative Diva

Creating heals. Sorta...

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So I've been sick for the last four days with what is either a very bad cold or a very mild flu. It isn't bad enough to keep me totally bedridden but it's annoying enough to leave me without much energy. I had to forgo my dance class today, something I really didn't want to do, which underscores the level to which I am sick. Next to nothing keeps me from a dance class. Thankfully I have been lucid enough at times to venture into my craft workshop and make up a couple of cards.

"Celebrate You" was created in honor of my sister and brother-in-law's 29th wedding anniversary. It was made in shades of white and iridescent ivory and accented with tiny bits of black and gold bling. Materials used were: Spellbinders Borderabilities A2 Curved Borders One die, Memory Box Vivienne Butterfly die (style #98265), Stampin' Up Elegant Lines Embossing Folder (retired), Celebrate You stamp by Stampin' Up (retired). Flowers, pearls and mini bling from my stash.

"Center Your Heart" was created for the Oriental Stamp Art (OSA) Yahoo Group's weekly layout challenge. The challenge for this week was to create a card similar to this one that also adhered to the basic rules for the weekly challenge, those being that the card must be Oriental in nature and must contain at least one stamped image. This was my best attempt. Actually it was my only attempt. I was lightheaded and fatigued as a result of my not-quite-the-flu symptoms but I liked the challenge so much that I muddled through until I finished it. I'm so glad I did. Creating a card, however simple, gives me a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It goes a long way to combating the feelings of uselessness I get from spending a day slopping about in pajamas and generally feeling like...like...bleeechh!

Yeah, okay. It's time for me to crawl back into bed again.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Celebrating A Life Together

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My sister Sue and brother-in-law Todd recently celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary and the event was marked with a family dinner hosted by my parents at their home. It was a simple affair to mark a grand achievement, one that I thought deserved a souvenir to commemorate the special occasion so I decided to create something that would be a lasting reminder of the day they got married. To that end I created  coordinating corsages for the two of them. (Oh, I know that men aren't "supposed" to wear corsages but what is a boutonniere if not a very small corsage?)

The corsages are created with a mix of miniature roses I made myself and manufactured elements in a gold and white color scheme. Her corsage features a small narrow ribbon bow imprinted with the words "Mr. and Mrs." and a white dove perched on the side of the golden bow. His smaller corsage features two golden rings affixed on the white plume just above the roses.

I also made corsages for my parents, the host and hostess. My mother loves all things green so her little roses are pale green with matching ribbon bows. My father's corsage is blue and white.

Wearing their anniversary flowers.

Seems I haven't stopped making paper flowers for a year now, starting with that massive floral project I did for my daughter's graduating class in 2010. Funny thing is that the more I make them, the more I like making them. I guess there are more flowers in my future for sure.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
Design team member for About Art Accents