A Very Special Birthday Card

I had a lot of fun making this card for a dear friend's birthday.  She's received a fair bit of my crafty stuff and so I was looking for a special card design.  My mom gave me a store bought mother's day card this year with a huge die cut butterfly 3'd out of the center of the inside.  After thinking how thoughtful the card was, my second thought was - I'm totally scraplifting that idea.  Thus, this card was born.

I stamped the butterfly on white cardstock with black Archival Ink.  I then used my Faded Jeans Distress Marker and a water pen to watercolor the butterfly centers.  A little Wink of Stella glitter brush was used, but the pictures don't do it justice.  This matched the front of the card where I used a larger waterbrush to brush ink before stamping the sentiment in black Archival Ink.

I die cut the butterfly out of the layered portion of the inside to give the impression that the butterfly "emerged" from the card.  I ran the butterfly die through the die cut twice- cutting only half of the image.  This allows the die cut to be visible around the raised die cut.  The centerpiece that pops the butterfly off the card is a 2 in. x 1 1/8 in. rectangle.  I scored the piece 1/4 inch from each end and then again a 1/2 in. from each end.  This created the 1/8in. flat section that the butterfly is adhered to.  I glued the 1/4 in. ends together to create a slightly triangular piece.  The card doesn't lay completely flat- but she didn't mind.

The sentiments are stamped in black Archival ink and then accented with gems.  I'm really pleased how this card turned out. It will be one of my favorites for a long time.

I hope your Saturday is going well.  I'm off to redo the bathroom cabinets.  More of the home reno that started earlier this year. I'm really stretching things out...

I've linked this card up with Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge Blog: Simon Says Anything Goes and Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #194:Anything Goes Family.  Come join the fun or be inspired.

Fluttering By with a Birthday Wish

I had the occasion to make a card for a co-worker's birthday this week.  Kathy enjoys butterflies and bling and you can see the influence on card design because of it.

I reached into the stash and found a piece of City Park by American Crafts.  This paper was a part of the gift box I won from Paper Crafts Connection way back in April of 2011.  I've used various pieces over the years, but this stripe was left behind.  I gathered the scraps from various pieces together with some matching cardstock and the card was born.  The butterfly was stamped with black Archival ink.  I used a glue pen to apply the different colors of glitter and fussy cut the image out. 

The flowers were cut with my Heartfelt Creations Posy dies, shaped with my stylus and a tiny pearl accent added to the center.  The bling was from the stash and the sentiment was created by stamping with a Market Street Stamp sentiment and cutting out the flag. 


The inside was dressed up with a matching piece of patterned paper from the City Park collection.  This pattern was actually the inspiration for the card.  The sentiment plaque was made using my Stampin' Up Essentials Paper Piercing tools.

Happy Birthday, Kathy!


I've linked this up to Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #106: Anything Goes and The Paper Girls Challenge Blog's Challenge #43: Cut It Out.  Come join the fun!