Yakudoshi Koi

Once in awhile events occur that make me stop and think, "Wait...am I that OLD already?" Such was the case when we recently received an invite to a Yakudoshi birthday party for the "little boy" who was the ring bearer at our wedding..."WHAT? He's 41 years old ALREADY?!!!"
Mark's birthday invitation was a lovely Asian style card with a picture of a koi on it, symbolic in Asian cultures as representing strength and overcoming adversity. Very appropriate, since the Yakudoshi years are considered the turbulent years in one's life, and the reason for the big celebration being a way for friends and family to bring good luck.

I decided to go with the koi theme and was happy to have the chance use the cutfile I had created a while back for my dad's koi birthday card again. Remembering the difficulties I ran into last time, I spent a little extra time re-working the original cutfile so it would cut cleaner; and chose a thinner, text weight paper with a less porous, smooth pearlized finish.. Much more pleased with the results this time around!

Then instead of trying to color the koi, this time around I cut a blackout image from some pretty orange prismatic paper (Best Occasions Prismatic Paper Pack). Really liked how the shimmer of this paper reminded me of the shiny reflection of scales on koi swimming in a pond. I added a little dimension by using foam tape to attach the fish to their gold foil shadows.
Adhered the koi and a layered cut of the kanji character "fuku" for good fortune in a recessed window card with a half inch depth. (Tutorial for this by Lynn Mercurio at Splitcoast Stampers, here) For the background inset, I used blue pearlized paper and Spellbinders Asian M-Bossibilities folder to create the Asian wave pattern.

Kept the inside of the card plain and simple. Just added a mini red envelope for a monetary gift, held in place with a gold gift card holder, cut using Jaded Blossom's Gift Card die. Had fun putting this card together; and I hope it brings enough good luck to help our grown up ring bearer sail through his yakudoshi year with ease!