this might be the weirdest card i've ever made!

(so obviously i am VERRRRRRRY proud indeed!!!)

first a bit of backstory: this is the third in a series of "legendary crooners" cards i've made for my chiropractor's birthday* the last couple of years. he loves the rat pack, loves vintage vinyl, (of course, he doesn't refer to it as "vintage" since he bought most of it new!) and he has a similar sense of humor to mine--by which i mean weird, obviously! :)

i made him an elvis card last year and a frank sinatra one the year before. this year it was either dean martin or tony bennett. i couldn't think of a good tony bennett joke, so dean it is! (just in case you don't happen to be a fan, one of dean martin's biggest hits was "that's amore". for comedic greeting card purposes i've changed the lyrics to "that's a birthday".)

my first idea was just to make a regular card with dean martin on it and the custom lyrics. this quickly morphed to making a round black card that looked like a 45 record. then i remembered this beauty made by my lovely friend & fellow caardvark stephanie ...it's from a while ago but i still absolutely looooooooooooooove it!

you'll have noticed that my card is nothing like stef's...but thinking of it reminded me that i still *have* a few old 45's**. "wouldn't it be cool," i asked lovely husband jeff, "if i actually used the record as a card??!" and of course he agreed. :)

i used the real disc label as a guide to make my own custom label for the center. it includes faux publishing information which works in the altered song title and a pretend album title, as well as mine & jeff's & our chiro's names. then i decorated the disc with a picture of dean martin and used rub-ons to make my own lyrics to "THAT'S A BIRTHDAY". finally i decorated the paper sleeve to serve as an envelope, et voila!

i think it's *hilarious* (she said modestly!) and i CANNOT WAIT to give it to him. so it's lucky my back is COMPLETELY OUT right now, eh? so we get to see him tomorrow!!!***

...now i just have to think of a tony bennett joke for NEXT year... :)




*what?! you don't celebrate YOUR chiropractor's birthday??! how very odd... :)

**god alone knows WHY...i have not owned a record player in AT LEAST a decade...

***unfortunately i am serious about this part. back-wise it's been a lousy couple of weeks; which is a big part of the reason i've been even worse than usual as far as email & comments go. i do apologize sincerely, but honestly it's about all i can do right now to get in and out of work, complete my dt duties, and do a bit of housework and general life maintenance. please forgive me, full service shall resume ASAP!