Taming the Lion!

The 'Lion' in this case is our second son, Michael, who hits his fortieth birthday tomorrow! I call him the lion because he has a mane of hair, which is normally held back with a bandanna or in a pony-tail something like this.

But if he shows it a brush, or shakes it around, it can end up looking like this! Quite a mane, yes?

Due to various work commitments during the summer, he has postponed his birthday celebration until early September, and at his party he is having the lot shaved off for charity! (He did the same for his thirtieth and it was such a fun occasion.).

He works as Fund-raising advisor for the Severn Hospice, so this time they will be receiving any sponsor money he collects.

So when it came to making his birthday card, I thought one featuring a lion would be appropriate. So here is the front of my card.

The backing paper is from a digi-scrapbook kit called Safari by Varena Karolyi. I think I bought it from Scrap Art a long time ago. I hope you can see the ghost-lion on the bottom right. He is beautiful. The tag was made from the same kit with the addition of a paw print strip png file I made. (A bit of artistic license here. They are dog prints really, but for today they are lion prints!). The base card is burgundy/brown with a hint of gold, and the letters are from a tiny ply wood alphabet I bought once..?, coloured with a walnut stain distress marker and sprayed with gold mica. The lion image is from another more recent digi scrapbook kit, Menagerie by Studio Sherwood, and bought from Scrapbook Graphics. I printed him three times and decoupaged his head and front leg, feathering around the mane layer.

Now the real surprise comes when you open the card and see this!

This was my first attempt at Kirigami - the Japanese art of paper folding and cutting, (as opposed to origami which is only folding). I bought the pattern from easycutpopup.com, and in fairness it was fairly easy. The file was called Fatherhood and as Mike adores his two little boys, I know it will appeal to him. There is no gluing involved. Everything just slots together. It is stretching the rules of kirigami a bit as you are only supposed to use one sheet of paper and this actually used three, but I think it was worth it. It all folded down flat very willingly. 

It is held into the main card by two small tabs, which I secured with pieces of masking tape. The front one was then hidden behind the main image. 

That left me with the one on the back, so to hide that I made a panel from the same scrapbook kit, and added a few words to it.

I am thrilled to say our plane tickets for September are booked so we will be attending the Big Cut, where we also see all of our boys and their partners, our grandchildren and our great grandson. Happy times!

The one good thing about the hair  (I actually love all his curls and will be sad to see them go), is that his daughter is getting married next May - another trip to UK coming up, and she is pleased that his hair will be tidy when he gives her away.

There are several 'Anything goes' challenges I could link this to, but I will just chose a couple of them. Then I will stand a chance of commenting on the other entries!

Craft Your Passion Challenge 172: Anything goes - Birthday.

Let's Craft and Create Challenge 74: Anything goes.