Bright Lights CelebrationsCompleted by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

Beautiful shades, and an easy decoupage, and altogether a very universal topper for many occasions. I have made 2 cards, one for a female birthday and one for a male birthday. I really like being able to achieve 2 for 1.

I printed the sheet supplied twice onto 200gsm white card and cut out all the elements for each one. With the female card, I used an egg shell blue card, cut at 24cm wide, and 15cm high, and folded it, and set it aside, while I made the backing sheets. The first backing sheet is a dark blue , but into the purple hues, and measures 14 x 11cm. The next is an egg shell blue, with an all over, white and gold print in words, and measures 13 x 10cm. Then I returned to the dark blue as before, and it measures, 12 x 9cm. I attached 2 ribbons to the front of the smaller of the dark blue backing sheets, and attached the others behind with D.S. Tape, and then wrapped the 2 ribbons together over and around to the back and secured it with magic tape. I then attached these backing sheets to the main card.

I completed the decoupage, using all the pieces provided, but only used 2 of the butterflies. I added the same egg shell blue backing sheet, which measures, 11 x 8cm, to this topper and edged the main picture with gold peel off strips. I tied a large bow, using the 2 ribbons together, and attached it with power tape. For the Insert, I used a pearl finished ivory sheet, cut at, 21 x 13 cm, and added 2 large strips of the same egg shell blue print, each cut at, 14.5 x 9.5cm and used a gold peel off strip on the inside edges before attaching each piece to the inside of the card. I then attached the ivory part of the insert over the top and added 4 butterflies. As I didn't use these on the mail card I had some to spare.

For the male card, I used 2 different brown toned check backing sheets, and 2 light tan backing sheets. The main card is white, and is cut at, 25 x 15 cm. The larger tan backing sheet measures 14.5 x 12cm, the large check measures 13.5 x 10.5cm. The next tan backing sheet measures, 12 x 8.5cm. I then edged the larger tan with a purple coloured peel off strip. I coloured a gold strip with a purple marker to achieve this. The smaller tan has a gold peel off strip along all sides. I then used a denim ribbon to wrap across the smaller tan backing sheet. I then used D.S. Tape to attach all 3 backing sheets together, and padded tape strips to attach them to the card front,

I then made the topper. I cut 2 backing sheets for this. A Lighter shade of tan cut at, 10.5 x 7.5. I edged this with a light purple pen and used, D.S Tape to attach the main picture of the topper. I then used D.S Tape to attach this to a smaller style of check patterned backing sheet, but I kept this within exactly the same shades as the larger one. This smaller check patterned backing sheet measures, 11 x 8 cm, and I edged this with some purple shaded peel off strips. I used padded tape to attach these 3 to the card front and completed the decoupage, but without the butterflies.

For the insert, I used the same technique as the female card, but in slightly different sizes. I added strips of printed off HAPPY BIRTHDAY in a random pattern on the left hand side of the insert. Thank You for this delightfully easy and very usable design. As you can see I have made very good use of all that you supplied.

Pamela Horton