Happy Anniversary

Hi guys!  I love this card, is it just me?  The Chateau Gate die is such a versatile die to use.  I have used it here like a stained glass window.  I opened the shutters for the picture, but imagine sending this to someone and their surprise upon opening them and seeing the beautiful window inside!  I started by simply embossing the background with the Floral embossing folder.  I did extend the pattern a bit to get the size that I wanted.  Next I stamped the Grand Portal window stamp in black and coloured it with markers.  I covered it with a sticky adhesive sheet and then added clear micro beads over it to get that church window look.  I cut one of the Chateau Gates in white and glued it atop the window.  I mounted the entire piece with foam pieces in the upper corner of the card.  Next I stamped my sentiment from the Fancy Sentiment set by Justrite stamps.  I cut it out with the fancy tags two die and mounted it in the middle of the bottom of the card.  I used the swirl die from the Bella Rose set and cut a couple of them out of white card.  I nipped away the leaves on it and cut it into some smaller sections and added it around my sentiment, cascading across the card.  The final decorative bit came from the tiny flowers in the scalloped posy set.  These are great, they give you eight of them in the set and they are so useful for just this sort of thing.  I cut them in vellum so they have a translucent quality to them.  I used a stylus to shape them a bit and layer them in pairs offset slightly.  I finished the centres with tiny flatback pearls and attach them on to my cascading flourish.  I love the softness they add to this piece.  I pierced the edges to complete the card.  If you aren't a fan of the pop of vibrant colour, picture it with a black and white window instead, also lovely I think.  Finished dimensions are 6 3/4" x 7 3/4" in size. 
I want to say a great big thank you to all my blog friends for the amazing emails and support during my shows for the past four days.  It really does make the work that I put into my shows feel like anything but work!  I have to hit the ground running today as asked to the POTW starting on the 15th of March with all new dies!  Julia Watts and I are sharing the teamwork on this one and I hope you will like what we bring you.  First, I am going to take some time this morning to place flowers on the monument at the base at Molesworth, however, to remember my Dad as it would have been his 93rd birthday today.  He was an incredibly special man that taught me so much about life and love,  I miss him so much.  Happy Birthday, Dad!  all for now, Sue x