Happy Birthday!

Here's to a birthday full of peonies and sea dreams! With so many spring birthdays, I had a blast surprising some people. To that end, I'm fortunate enough to have awesome friends who deserve equally awesome birthday gifts:

"Happy Birthday" Peony Card

"Sea Dreams" endless necklace

What was my inspiration? Spring-- the season of flowers and newness. Warm, summer-like weather has also made me think about vacations, beaches, and sea life. That's where these two fab designs came from.


Let me answer a few questions you're surely thinking: "Why are you posting jewelry? Isn't this a blog about cards?" The answers to these questions are

• (a) Jewelry rocks (pun intended). It deserves some blog time.

• (b) This is a blog about cards, and yet this blog isn't exclusively about cards.

Obviously, "Cardallegiance" refers to cards. However, you'll find, dear readers, that I tend to get creative in a variety of ways. Jewelry crafting-- which for me includes beading and metalworking-- is also a passion of mine. So this birthday post gives you a sampling of card and gift ideas inspired by the spring/summer seasons.

To that end, I'm giving a great big shout-out to spring gardens and L'Occitane.

The backstory- On recent outings, I encountered these large, gorgeous peonies budding and in full bloom. Then I noticed the fabulous work produced by L'Occitane for the new "Pivoine Flora Fragrance Collection" :

L'Occitane's Pivoine Fragrance

How inspiring is that? I just had to create something reflecting peonies. Here are more shots of the finished product:

 

What's so cool about this design? Of course, it's based on nature's handiwork. Secondly, the envelope is recycled. I used an old flyer to craft the minty green card holder. Note the plaid detailing on the inside. You can even see original text on the document. I didn't bother to cover up all those rows of numbers since they added so nicely to the design. The outside print comes from my sketch of a peony bud. So precious!

    

Now for the jewelry. This "endless necklace" has no clasp, but it's meant to be worn long or layered (the full length of this baby is about 25.5 inches).







The composition is mostly seed beads in blue, green, and gold hues with a few accent beads (metallic and wood) thrown in. My friend was thrilled with her gift and coincidentally, it matched the vibrant turquoise dress she was wearing. Total awesomeness!

So, there you have it. Happy Born Day, readers!