For Liz and Kevin's wedding card I wanted to be a little creative and make my own card. I was inspired by the art of Chinese paper cutting, but I knew I wouldn't have time to cut a design for an entire card, so I designed something that would have some part cut out while the rest of the card would have some sort of intricate drawing.
The Chinese character for double happiness is a symbol of marriage so I chose to make that the cut out portion of the card. I knew phoenixes were common symbols for marriage in the Chinese culture, so I googled images of phoenixes, and designed a scene with paper lanterns. I thought I was set with just a phoenix, but then I read more into the traditions and found that a phoenix was always paired with a dragon as feng shui symbols to represent harmony in marriage.
I don't know why I always make small sketches in my sketchbook. I have the entire page!
After sketching, I drew it out on a sheet of paper as an actual sized card and used a pen to trace it firmly onto my red cardstock paper.
I watched a lot of Ally McBeal to keep me company.
I used my craft knives to carefully cut out the character for double happiness.
By following the drawing I traced onto the paper earlier, I used a gold paint marker to draw out my design.
It's not super intricate, but it looks pretty cool.
I didn't have gold paper to use as the backing of the cut out of "double happiness," but I noticed the money envelope I was going to use for their gift was gold. It needed to be placed inside the card anyway so I used some washi tape and taped it behind "double happiness."
Because my card was huge, I had to make my own envelope. I ended up designing it wrong, and it didn't cover the card entirely. I didn't have time to remake it, so I left it. Oops.
I'm naming them Fawkes and Fang after Dumbledore's phoenix and Roku's dragon.
Happy wedding, Liz and Kevin <3
