Lovebirds' First Anniversary

Time passes so quickly...I can hardly believe a whole year has already gone by since my daughter and son in law's wedding! In celebration of their first anniversary, I wanted to send them a handmade card but since we were in the midst of preparing for our vacation to Singapore/Japan, I decided to wait till after we got back so I could spend the time and love needed to make something special.

I thought it might be kind of fun to use the same lovebirds theme they had used at their wedding, so I started by creating a box to hold the card, adding a seal similar to the one that they originally used on the bellyband of their wedding invitations.

After doing a google search, I came across many beautiful cards made using the Tim Holtz birdcage die and I knew I'd have to try one too. After cutting the birdcage from glittered cardstock, I gently molded it with my hands to give it a rounded popped up shape, added tabs to the sides of the cage and attached it to the background cardstock.

Foilage was cut in several shades of green using C.C. Designs Olive Branch die, Stampin' Up Small Leaves die and Bird punch, and Martha Stewart Branch punch. Flowers are all from All Natural Accents and tree branch was cut using Quickutz Revolution Branches die. Lovebirds are the same birds we had used for the wedding favors; cut from Quickutz Lovebirds die with their wings cut in glittered cardstock using the Stampin' Up Bird punch. Eyes are tiny black gems.

After all the embellishing was done, I tucked my card front into my favorite recessed window type card. Although I increased the depth of my window to 0.5", the birdcage with birds and leaves actually popped out beyond that...but it seemed to look okay...I just had to make sure the box for my card was deep enough so it all wouldn't get smashed... 

Then on the inside, I added a photo of the "lovebirds" during their first dance at their wedding reception. Used Spellbinders Labels One and Labels One Small dies to cut and mat the photo, and Labels Four dies for the sentiment.

Hard to see in the previous photo, but I added a border cut from Memorybox Cherish Border below the photo for the final finishing touch. I'm hoping they'll enjoy their card...even though it was a little late...."Congratulations J & L! We LOVE YOU!!!"