Tall Tri-Fold Invitation

Happy Memorial Day, friends! I hope your holiday weekend was joyous, just like mine! Extra love and prayers were sent to all our troops, present and past, who serve so selflessly. I wish I could hug them all... as well as their families.

This project took on a life of its own! Originally I was going to make something semi-simplistic since I didn't have a ton of time left for entry into some crafty events... and you know how I love to play in those. But once I get an idea, I just have to go after it regardless how many hours slip away. This turned into quite a labor of love and I hope my sweet boyfriend loves it. I imagine this would have gone much more quickly if I had an E2 with the actual tri-fold feature.. or a Gypsy, which can also make them. Time spent on a blessing is never a waste, so I don't mind the oodles of hours of sunshine I missed out on. My sweetheart's smile upon receipt is all the sunshine I need. :o) (I'm sappier than a maple tree.)

One of the challenges I'm participating in revolves around the theme Grillin' and Chillin' in celebration of summer, and I instantly knew I wanted to make an invitation for a special date with my honey. I decided to make a tri-fold card (my first!) and the icing on top is the fact that two other challenges would also work with my theme! It's such fun when that happens. With that as my main inspiration, here's what I came up with!

The idea entails replicating one of our favorite activities, which is going to the gorgeous park near my house. Each 'fold' leading up to the main scene represents a different aspect of our park adventures. The card is sort of like a journey through what our date will be. :o)

First up: one of the beaches nestled within the park's sprawling grounds. We're eternally young-at-heart, so I needed to make a sandcastle. Then I decided our castle needed a shimmery moat... and if I ever had a moat, I'd use these sparkly beauties as my bridge. (My apologies for cutting off one of my favorite features of this card type: seeing the tops of each fold when it's closed. If the deadline wasn't almost up, I'd re-take the pictures.)

The middle part of our park fun: the glorious grounds themselves. The last time we went I was literally standing alongside eight deer. Thrilling! In this part, the interior tree leaves, beehive, and wagon contents are all sparklified. This sweet fawn is carrying a hint as to the ultimate destination of our date...

Now fully open, there's a whole lot of happy going on. :o) The pocket on the right holds a tag with the event details, which the sparkling caterpillar is so nobly holding up. I sparklified a lot more than the camera captured, partially because my boyfriend gets a kick out of my obsession with all things sparkly. ;) (Plus, the best marshmallows have iridescent sparkle... right?) Since I'm not a meat eater, s'mores are my "grilled" dinner for barbeques. ;)

An updated picture because the beehive from "page two" was left without a tenant. I was clearly too rushed tonight. I know it's blurry, but it's the best I could get super quick in a dimly lit room. He left the hive early to get a prime s'more making spot. ;) He's a smart baby bee.

Key Recipe Components:

 * Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter, Classic Font (the 'graham cracker' squares)

 * Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder

 * Paper: DCWV, Heidi Grace, Papertrey Ink, Core'dinations

 * Miscellaneous: Stickles

I'm including my date invitation in the following fun locations:

Bug Bites Bug Hop (Hidden critter from hop required)

Cooking With Cricut Cele"bear"ation Blog Hop (Bear required)

Scrappy Moms Stamps Terrific Tuesday (Life's a beach!)

Thank you for stopping by! I truly appreciate your visit. :o)