Happy Anniversary to us :)

Hi there :)

January 21st this year marked our 2nd anniversary and I decided to make Michael a card to celebrate.  I had seen a really cute card online that I thought I could adapt a bit to fit the occasion and they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Here's the card that inspired me:

Card by Tara Sell

Tara has a great eye for design and she also creates crafting videos which she shares on her blog.  I watched her video showing how she made this particular card and she explained it all so well that my card came together very quickly.

I made my card using watercolour paper so that I could use my Zig clean colour markers and I'm really pleased with the results.  Here's my wee squirrel with his acorn from Gerda Steiner Designs Happy Fall (yes I had exactly the same stamp and die sets as Tara LOL)

Since this card was for our anniversary I got out my Tim Holtz Celebrate dies and die cut 'happy anniversary'.  I even remembered to use some Stick It to the back of my cardstock before die cutting the words so they were super easy to place where I wanted them.

On the outside I followed exactly what Tara had done on her card/video using the My Favorite Things - Trees in the Forest die.  I cut the 'hole' in the front of my card with My Favorite Things - Starry Circle die.

I really like the idea of the trees and the hole on the card front and I've got plans to do more of this type of card!

I stamped the 'oops' sentiment from the Happy Fall stamp set onto black card and embossed it with white embossing powder. 

It makes more sense with the cute wee squirrel peaking through the hole:

And here's the finished card:

Michael really loved the card and it's now sitting up on the mantle above the fireplace.  He's quite sentimental about things like this so it was nice to do something really special for him.

We had decided to go out for dinner last night to celebrate our anniversary and after much talking about 'where' we would go Michael came up with an idea... rang ahead and booked a table so it was all a bit of a surprise. 

We ended up going to Stratosfare Restaurant at the top of the skyline mountain... super cool.  We arrived at the restaurant via a gondola ride which was very cool... and the ride back down in the dark was even better... we could see the city lights spreading out for miles... truly gorgeous!

I have to admit that I was quite taken with all the lighting... those shades are phenomenal... although probably a bit much for our lounge LOL

While we were having dessert one of the waitresses brought over a tiny little cake covered in chocolate ganache, complete with a wee lit golden candle...  mini pink meringues and the chef had also written 'Happy Anniversary' in chocolate on the plate... so special.  We were then presented with a card from the staff at Stratosfare... we were totally blown away by it all.  What fantastic customer service!  They certainly took our celebration up a level!

So that was our anniversary... definitely a special celebration :)  Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today xx