We have a relative who recently turned 105 years young. She is a dynamo still going strong, although she will tell you her ‘body is not what it used to be’ and she is ‘adapting, still’. She is the oldest resident in her facility.
As a teenager, she volunteered in the home. Later she worked there as an adult. When it was time to leave her own home, there was no question as to where she would live. She even managed to get a room with the best views.
When we visit her, she tells us about the youngsters that moved in recently. When we ask how old these youngsters are, she gets a wry little grin and says only in their eighties. The last time we saw her she was commenting on the new babies in the facility – in their sixties.
If you ask what is her secret to her longevity she will answer ice cream. She loves those little cups of vanilla ice cream. They have to be very frozen and only vanilla. The staff at the facility know they have to keep them on hand for her. She eats them with every meal – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes she will start the meal with ice cream and end the meal with another. Yet, she maintains a healthy weight. She has outlived many of her (younger) doctors. Maybe they should have eaten more ice cream. π
design of a special card
For many years I have been sending her unique cards, made just for her. After all, it is not every day, or every year, a person turns 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 or 105! This year the card I designed is much larger than my normal cards. It is 6″ wide and 9″ tall.

This is the finished card in ivory and blue with rose gold paper.

The finished card is 6′ wide by 9′ tall. I did not have a card stock that would allow for 6 x 9 when folded, so I had to do the next best thing – fudge it.
I cut one piece at 6 x 9 and another at 7 x 9. I scored a one inch margin along the 9″ side to use to tape the front and back together. The margin is taped to the left front of the front of the card, and the remaining 6 x 9 piece folds back for the back of the card.

Using a piece of blue card stock cut to 5.5″ x 5.5″, I created the background for the heart cut out on the card face.
In this image you can see the margin that has been taped to the left edge.

This is the face of the card, you can see I die cut a large scalloped heart from the ivory card stock. Reserve that die cut heart for later use.
This layer covers the margin from the back of the card.

Using a die cut, I cut out the detailed heart in rose gold glimmer card stock and took care in gluing it in place with a fine tip glue pen.
I then die cut the little flowers to match in silver shimmer paper and glued them with the fine tip glue pen.
The final step in this layer was affixing the blue rhinestones around the outside on the scallops and throughout the heart.

I used foam tape strips to affix the decorated heart to the card face. With the dimension of the foam, you can see the layer of blue below the heart. It gives the card face an extra dimension.

‘happy birthday’ and 1005th are die cut from card stock.
‘happy birthday’ is actually five layers of the same die cut. Each layer is carefully glued to the next with a fine tip glue pen. I used a stamping block to hold the die cut in place as it dried.

To add a little more detail to the lettering of the plain blue card stock, I used the fine tip glue pen to give the lettering a bit of shiny dimension.

From this angle you can see the depth of the happy birthday and the layering of the heart over the blue panel.
I also die cut 105 th in the rose gold paper and used the foam tape to affix them over the first silver layer.

Now that I made a special card, I needed a special envelope. I created this card with a 12 x 12 piece of card stock and an envelope board.
Celebrate, amazing and the word you are all from a Stampin’ Up! die cut set. I wanted a heart on the envelope, so I die cut the heart, then die cut the word ‘you’ from that heart.
I sent the special card with a bunch of photos in an USPS hard envelope with a padded sheet to protect the card in transit.
Many of the products used here are retired Stampin’ Up! products.
I am an independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.