40th birthday keepsake for a friend....

I've known Jo since we were both about 8 years old. It's her 40th birthday this week. I've bought her card and a present, but I wanted to make something as well.

This was the only photo I could find of just her, i.e., no one else cutting across it anywhere or taking her attention. It was taken on her 23rd birthday. The pair of us went off to Chessington World of Adventure and had a great time on all the rides, just like when we were kids at a fun fair. The coolli hat was because it was so hot. I wore one, too. She's eating a very runny peach and I remember she ended up very sticky.
I scanned in the photo and made lots of small copies, including a couple of black and whites. I also cropped into the pink flowers in the background, and printed these off too, separately.

I used a few sheets of acid-free 120gsm card and just made it up as I went along, really....

This is the front-
....so this is 3 layers- card, then paper, then a photo of the background flowers, with a stick-on butterfly cut-out and a tag that I made from scrap paper and more card- it isn't stuck down so you can move it out of the way....

I like the leaves at the top right corner....
..... I have a leaf-shape hole punch and punched a few holes in a spare photo. When I emptied it I found these little leaf shapes, so I stuck them on. Bottom right of this close-up you can see a small pearl bead, too.

OK this is the inside....

"You're not really 40, you're 23 with 17 years' experience!"

The card I used was green one one side and black on the other. I didn't have any card that was the same each side. But this meant I could play with more colour I suppose, as I'm not sure that orange paper would have worked on the green...

ANYWAY...

The black and white close up of her face is framed by lots of tiny, tiny thumbnail photo crops of the pink flowers in the background, lined up and printed off as a border.....


.....here's more of the flower background, this time enlarged and written on....
- this photo is mounted on paper that I tore round the edges and then rubbed a stamp-pad on the rough edge. It puts in a bit of pink contrast, but it doesn't show up very well here.

Here's the back:Again, the paper is roughly torn and the exposed edges rubbed with an ink pad, this time dark blue.

(Notice the toggle on the right hand side? I used separate bits of card and orginally just held them together with the ribbon I used on the tags. But it was difficult to open and read. So I bound it at the side with elastic instead, and tidied this up with a plastic toggle.)

......Finally, because there was a butterfly on the paper, I added another, cut out of a bit of vellum. I used the rest of the vellum sheet to make an envelope.

Sorry to waffle in such detail, but I was very pleased with how it turned out, 'specially as I didn't have a plan, just wanted to pootle at something in front of the telly....

Hope she likes it!!!!