New Challenge at Aurora Wings

Our new challenge begins today on the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog with the exciting theme of 

Any music works here, a movie or TV series soundtrack, a nursery rhyme, classical or popular, with or without lyrics.  We're excited to see what inspires you.

They say "Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express."  The beautiful thing is music is like a time machine.  One song... the music, the lyrics, the mood...can take you back to a moment like nothing else can.  My inspiration comes from Elton John, he definitely takes me back.  To be honest, my initial choice was "Your Song", which has special meaning, as it was a surprise gift (a 45 record) and Elton John's first hit, from my first serious boyfriend in 1970.  Unfortunately, I couldn't quite come up with an appropriate image, so I chose my next favorite by Elton, "Tiny Dancer".

No problem there, as Mitzi, a former ballerina and ballet teacher, has many beautiful images to choose from.  Star Dancer won out as it evokes the pure joy of the dance and looks like someone you could fall in love with completely.  She's colored in Copics, fussy cut, glued to a black background, and fussy cut again for stability and drama.  

Here's a closeup of the dimensional adhesive stars and Stardust Stickles I've used to bling Star Dancer up. She's pure magic, isn't she?!

I've used a piano die from Marianne Creatables to make the shaped card.  Elton's piano was such a love of mine that I bought sheet music of my favorites of his to learn myself.  Unfortunately, they were not piano solos and required sung lyrics which is certainly NOT my forte.  I cut the die with substantial matte card stock and again in glossy black like our grand piano at home. Star Dancer is attached to the intricate die cut music stand that came with the piano die, which I then glued to a Spellbinders Labels Two die, again for more stability.  

Although there was another die that was supposed to hold up the piano lid, I didn't need it, and to be honest, couldn't figure out how it was supposed to be attached.  No instructions included with the die, so I had to wing it. I decided to make this a birthday card and added curved silver sentiment stickers and a musical die by Tutti cut in silver metallic card stock.

I know I've mentioned this before, but when working with glossy or metallic card stock especially, I prefer to use my Xyron machine to apply the adhesive to avoid messing up the glossy finish.  My trick is to use a small stylus and go around all of the edges of the die, as well as the interior portions, before removing the top layer to avoid those icky "strings".  It helps that the weather is getting cooler, as well.

Inside, I cut down the right angle edges of the piano die to make a mat and printed the sentiment on my computer.  I added star corner stickers and additional stars to embellish.  From here you can see that I attached Star Dancer underneath the interior mat, and between two layers of the Labels Two, with a strip of acetate.  The back of the digi and the die cut music stand looks finished, as well.  Happy that I didn't have to use the mystery die to prop the lid because it popped right up automatically, as did the music stand with my "tiny dancer".  WooHoo!

The good news is, it folds flat for mailing, as well.  Well, thanks for hanging in there for this epic post (believe it or not, this was edited severely, but as they say, "One song... the music, the lyrics, the mood...can take you back to a moment like nothing else can.")  

Be sure to visit our new Challenge and the fabulous musical inspiration from my Stella sisters.

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog 

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I'm entering this in the DL.Art September Linky Challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #90 AG (1/3), Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #251 AG (1/3), the Outlawz Festive Fridays Birthday theme, 613 Avenue Create September AG, A Gem of a Challenge #227 One for the Girls/Ladies, the Colour Crazy Challenge wk 37 AG w/coloring (1/2), the Classic DT Open #9 AG (2/3), Creative Fingers #152 AG (1/3), Crafts Galore Encore Sept. AG (2/3), the Corrosive Challenge September #9 AG (1/3), A Perfect Time to Craft September #9 AG (1/3), Always Happy Birthday September (1/3), Crafty Girls Creations #50 AG (1/3), Create and Inspire September #77 AG/Inspired by a Song (1/3), CCC Digi Creations #96 Use Pearls/Gems (1/3 hope those stars count), Daisy Chain Challenges September #23 Birthday (U), If You Give a Crafter a Cookie Challenge #102 4th Anniversary challenge AG, Let's Craft and Create #141 AG/option Best Friends, the World Wide Open DT Challenge #09 (Sept/Oct) AG (1/3), Simon Says Wednesday Pop it Up (1/5)