We've got a lovely friend called Don who is absolutely addicted to all things Disney, especially the pins (of which he's got hundreds). He and his partner Debbi visit Disney World in the States and also the European one. He is also a fantastic artist who works in various mediums. A couple of weeks ago Debbi gave me a ring and asked me to make an 18th birthday card for Don - now I've made a few 18th cards for them in the past months, so just asked which relative this one was for........then I was astounded when Debbi said no, not an 18th, I said an 80th!!!!! Hence the question is 80 the new 60? Cause we had no idea Don was anywhere near that age - he doesn't look it or act it - mind you with his fascination for Disney perhaps he's in his second childhood!!!
So, what to do for this special card..... well it had to be Disney incorporating Mickey Mouse and his favourite baddie Maleficent - who I can hear you say???? Well I didn't know her either but she was the baddie in Snow White. Now although Disney have approved rubber stamps, toppers etc there is nothing out there in the digital world that has been licensed. However, I managed to download some images that I could play with in CraftArtist. In the main card for Debbi I have put a background of the fairy castle. I found a free clip art of an artist painting and used cut-out studio to get a photo of Don's head which I then merged onto the clip-art and added the image of Maleficent so it looks like he's painting her.
I also did a similar thing so he's arm in arm with Mickey. I decided to turn it into a type of penny slider card but rather than a straight roll for the pennies I did nearly a full circle - and I didn't use pennies for this. I was given a great tip which is to use the type of plastic bobbins you use for your sewing machine which can be bought in a certain low cost store for £1 for a pack of 20!!! It really does work well as there's no sticky pads inbetween to catch on anything and the image on the bobbin spins round as it's going round the circle. I also made a badge of some of the Disney characters which was topped with Diamond Glaze and decoupaged his name.
The card which I made for him from Tony and I was a digi image from Just Inklined which I've had for ages (Don loves steam trains and it seemed to go along with him being a big kid!!!). The backing paper was created in CraftArtist from a couple of free digi images of old trains. The embossing folder I've used is called Work Shop by Couture Creations; the cogs have been die cut using Spellbinders Sprockets set and I've used nesties for the main image and mat.
I actually bumped into Don this morning in Tesco's of all places and he had been absolutely delighted with both cards - not sure what he was doing there as it's his special day today!!!