Fenghuang: the Auspicious Chinese Phoenix

As you might imagine, coming up with a card worthy enough to send  my blogging pal, Patti for her birthday was quite a challenge for me. If you've seen any of Patti's amazing creations on her blog, you know what I mean! For starters, I knew it had to be RED (her fave color) and Asian (her fave theme).
After much deliberation, I finally chose to go with a tri-fold screen card. I knew I had to fix and tweak the original cutfile I used to make my first tri-fold screen card to fulfill an earlier cutfile request, so this gave me the opportunity to test the file before sharing it.
For my background papers, I chose papers from the Garden Zen collection from Lettering Delights(red) and the Dreams of Japan collection from Jazzy Patterns (pink). The seal on the bellyband is simply a Chinese long life sticker framed with a Martha Stewart Caning Pattern punch.

And here's what the card looks like in the inside... I decided I wanted to use an image of the auspicious phoenix, a legendary symbol of good fotrune, opportunity & luck to Asian cultures. It took many hours searching the internet but I finally came across an image I liked and felt would be suitable for rendering into a cutfile. Cleaned it up in Photoshop and MTC easily created the cutfile.

Metallic & glittery mylar sticker paper adhered to cardstock were used to cut out the phoenix, which I popped up with dimmensionals onto a background embossed with one of the folders from the Cuttlebug Asian Bundle.

I especially loved all the intricate cuts on the phoenix, and it was such a joy knowing my Silhouette machine would not disappoint me!

Inside sentiments are computer generated and printed, using AR Decode and Chopin fonts, then cut into panels by the Silhouette. Added gold Robin's Nest dewdrops to the feet of the center screen as a final touch.

Had fun putting this card together, and amazingly I was able to get it finished and in the mail in time for Patti's birthday! Hoping she likes it as much as I had fun making it....