I had a curve ball lobbed at me this weekend, but then today things look so much brighter and the, ‘when one door closes, another opens’ mantra rings sooooo true.  It’s amazing.  When you feel sad, and then someone says, but hey, this is actually a good thing, it really makes me appreciate having people in my life that are such a positive influence.  Thanks, C. 🙂  Our conversation meant the world to me.  You really lifted me up.

So I started thinking about the many people that I have in my life, and some I haven’t talked to enough lately.  I decided to do something positive with my energy, and made a birthday card for a long-distance friend.  I was online at Create My Keepsake, and the Monday Muse was to create a shaped card.  Well, I decided to make a shaped element on my card instead.  And this weekend I purchased some Creative Imaginations‘ Caution Girl digital goodness from Polka Dot Potato which I used to create my hybrid card.

I used a pinwheel template as a layer for my file and placed the cherry/xbone paper on top, but lowered the opacity on this layer to allow my text to show through.  Then I warped ‘Happy’ around the curved paths of the pinwheel.  I made another copy, without the patterned paper layer for ‘Birthday’.  I printed these out and glued together, back to back to assemble the pinwheel.

The card background is the Cherry and Skull paper.  I added a digital sticker plaque, with a drop shadow, and the chain link border as the stem for my pinwheel.  This I printed out as one piece.

I also printed out an additional Skull Girl sticker and put an organza knot in her hair and a heart stickpin.  I mounted it on foam tape.

I put Glossy Accents on the chain link border; which I wish would show better in the picture.  But it’s really neat looking in person.

Finally, I edged the card base in seafoam, baby pink and black ink.  I used a catseye black chalk inkpad for the edges of the pinwheel too.

The end result is this kick @ss card – and the wonderful theme of this paper was a great way to finish off today.

But the card does beg the question, ‘Does it look like I care?’  Oh yes, I do – but I will continue on my journey regardless and I truly feel now like so many good things are on the horizon.  I didn’t know that my view was actually being blocked before!