Piano Card

I meant to make this card a couple of years ago but I struggled on the template and put the idea aside until I saw an adorable grand piano card on Pinterest: Once I saw the card, I fell in love with it and decided to make it for my friend, Agnes, who plays the piano so well.

 http://a-perfect-waste-of-time-loriete.blogspot.com/2011/10/template-for-piano-card.html

The blog does have a free template but I ended up creating my own but I still want to thank the blog owner, Loreta, for the inspiration. Thank you!

Although the templates for the different parts of the piano were not that difficult to make, I struggled on the technical aspect of adding legs to the piano and how to make them collapsible to end up with a flat folded card. You will see in the photos the clever idea I came up with. These are actually the third design of piano legs that I created. They are surprisingly sturdy and hold the piano very well. The piano keyboard was another challenge for me as I wanted the white keys to appear with a tiny bit of space in between to make them look authentic. I hated having to align the rectangle pieces one by one so I came up with the idea of welding a rectangle piece on the top edge of the keys to hold them together. I applied the same principle with the black keys so they are positioned perfectly on the white keys. I used mounting tape to give the 3D effect as seen in the photo. Please note that you will need a very efficient blade in your cutting machine to achieve clean cuts on the white keys otherwise the spacing between the keys will not look clean. I took a photo of the negative of the white keys to show clean the cut should be.

I distressed the music sheet to make it look vintage. The music sheet holder was made from an old corner border I got from a free site which I also used on my sofa card. I used my favorite technique of hand embossing on the filigree leaves (2 sizes) using the McGill stylus, photo shows before and after. The rose flowers were store bought. I used a wide lace sewn on one side to gather the edge.

I meant to use the music sheet layer for the inside of the card but since I used the same music sheet for the Happy Birthday sentiment on the card, I decided to put something else. I'm including the big piece music
sheet to give you the option to use it. I also distressed it for the vintage look. This can also be used as a top layer on the front of the card.

As usual, I'm sharing the file for free with my followers only. If you're not a follower yet and want to get the file, simply join my site. For my followers, you know the drill, just post a comment and indicate your request for the file. PLEASE, don't forget to include your e-mail address.

BTW, all the leaves were purchased from the Silhouette store so I can't share them. The names are:

1. leaf_filigree_C20091124050558_20387

2. leafy_flourish_C20091115202646_23067

3. leafy_sprig C00355_23067

4. fern_C00150_19547

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Ligaya