Happy Horsey Birthday: Horse Pop-Up Card

So here goes this year's attempt at trying to impress my niece with a card.  In all honesty, she does seem to enjoy them so it's not like she is super difficult to please or has ever sneered at past attempts.  I think in her preteen/teenage way she quite enjoys them.

Now my niece has been taking riding lessons for years and horse themed gifts have happened more than once.  This year she even worked over the summer helping to clean barns and teaching younger kids to ride, so clearly she loves horses.  Why else would you have anything to do with horse poop?  So I decided I would do a horse themed pop-up this year.  It was more artistic and less child-like and that appealed to me.  I shopped around my initial ideas (rough drafts) with my family and my husband suggested more horses in addition to the initial two part silhouette and I tried it and liked it.  I went with shades of brown card stock and a green field.  I love the way the horse silhouette folds when the card is closed.

I decorated the front of the card with a horseshoe cut from gold mirror paper.  I doubled up some of the elements to give it more depth and then added the Happy Birthday banner using some Scraptivity  and Hero Arts alpha stamps.  I used some Vintage Photo distress ink to distress the stamped and embossed banner.  I sure hope she likes it.

Well the comment was, "This is my favourite card so far!"

See the pages list at the side, there is now a How-to for this card.

Halloween is Coming

Every year Halloween is a big deal.  Some years are bigger than others.  For me its an awesome excuse to dress up and this year I've decided to explore something I have curiosity about.  This year I will be Anne Boleyn.  For the evening when the kiddies come, I am hoping I can work out how to have my severed head on a pike.  I tried to convince hubby to be Henry VIII or the headsman, but his last idea was robot, but I seem to remember some grumbling about that being too hard.  He enjoys the holiday, but obviously doesn't feel the need to commit the same time and effort that I do.

Part of my curiosity is how they wore all those clothes, so for a change I am hoping for a cool Halloween.  I'll be wearing 4 layers of clothing on top.  A smock, corset, kirtle and gown.  Some models add boning to the kirtle, skip the corset and add a petticoat.  I've decided to go a little transitional, so will use a corset and farthingale to support the kirtle and gown.  For me it will be a little more flexible moving forward and besides, I've learned with Halloween costumes, no one is looking for a history lesson besides me.

One of my first quandaries was deciding what to do about the busk.  There is conflicting evidence as to when the busk first appeared, but my corset will have one.  I figure even walking to the scaffold, Anne Boleyn would have been at the forefront of fashion.  Truth is she wore a quite conservative outfit to her execution.  Rather than the trademark fitted french gown with the french hood we all recognize, she apparently wore a loose gown and english hood.  No one would recognize this instantly as Anne Boleyn so french gown it is with a busk, but I will go with an english hood.  This way I won't have to use a wig.  The french hood sits quite far back on the head and I have bangs.  The english hood covers almost all the hair and is perfect for my bangs and distinctly not long not auburn tresses.

So first job busk and here it is.  It still needs the holes in the tip so it can be laced into place.  The busk was put on once the corset was in place and laced.  Stay tuned as the costume comes together.