Piano Birthday Wishes Card For Alan

This is the birthday card I made for our friend Alan - he is a pianist but now he lives in a small house he's restricted to using a keyboard!  I saw this fabulous piano card on Pinterest months ago and immediately thought of Alan and I decided I'd make one for his birthday.  Hmmm, I didn't take into account the freehand drawing and cutting of the curve shape and I'm not confident or good at doing things like that!  I went to a SU! Make and Take evening last Tuesday and one of the cards required a curve to be cut and I made such a hash of it that I had to ask my demo Joanne to take pity on me and do it for me!  So when I sat down to make this card I wondered just how many tries it would take and how much black CS would end up in the bin - surprisingly, I got the curve drawn after only a few attempts and at least I could rub out any mistakes with an eraser and start again!

I cut a black A6 size card, drew the curve with a pencil and then carefully did the cutting.  I went over the cut line with an emery board just to tidy it up.  I stamped the music background onto Whisper White CS and attached it to the inside of the card.  Something else I'm  not confident or good at is maths so trying to work out an equal width for the white piano keys to fit across the A6 card was headache inducing!  In the end I hit upon a measurement which left a tad over at the right side of the card so I just trimmed that bit off after drawing in the lines with a ruler and a black pen!  I then cut the black keys and popped those up with 3d foam pads.  As the card was for a man I didn't want to use ribbon so I just added a simple white sentiment strip and some black gems.

Inside I added a simple white sentiment panel where I could write my message.  I enjoy a pun now and then and I couldn't resist wishing Alan a 'grand' birthday!  

I used the music background stamp again for the envelope and added a black CS strip.  To finish off I added a frame where I could write Alan's name.  I spoke to Alan and Jan on the phone earlier today and they both told me they were thrilled to bits with this card - awwww, how nice!

Supplies:
Stamps:  SU! Happiest Birthday Wishes & Four Frames sets, Hero Arts Music Background, Hobby Art Best Wishes
CS: SU! Basic Black & Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Tools: SU! Decorative label punch
Embellishments & accessories: black gems, 3d foam pads