Watercolor Wings for a Beautiful Insect!

A good friend and Splitcoaststamper (SCS) teammate had a birthday right before Valentine's Day.  Unfortunately, I had thumb basal joint surgery at the beginning of February, and my left hand is still in a cast almost to the elbow to allow healing where The basal thumb bone was removed and replace with tendon plaiting to act as my future thumb cushion.

Four days after surgery, I managed to finish a card for another friend with an earlier birthday.  It was already designed with its pieces already stamped and the selected  patterned paper cut to size.  I just needed to select my cardstock colors, do a little mat layer die-cutting, fussy-cutting, and gluing to finish.  But I did find it stressed my hand and caused some added pain.  It was a message to me I was doing too much too soon as I had previously been relatively pain free!  I needed to wait a few weeks longer before trying it again.  This week-end was the time so my birthday card would not be any later.

Per my usual mode of operation, I caught my SCS challenge list up to date, and then I browsed for ideas and inspiration.  I really liked the pattern paper collection used on my previous card, because I love the blues and greens color combination.  It seemed I was destined to stick with them, because one of the first things I spotted in the SCS Inspiration challenge was a canvas in very similar hues with butterflies!  I'm really tired of winter, so building my card design around a beautiful spring insect, the butterfly, was perfect!   You may wonder the focus on an insect?  One of the challenges I wanted to enter this card into is the SCS Alphabet Challenge for Letter "I".

I decided to used the same paper collection, Naturally Eclectic, though different paper patterns, plus I focused on a light blue and green instead of navy and green.  Take a peek below at the finished inside and outside designs...not bad totally one-handed!

Ingredients:  SU Products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Bashful Blue (ret.), Emerald Envy.  Patterns--Naturally Eclectic/ 2018; DSP Stack-Subtles 2012-2013/ Bashful Blue Dots.   Stamps (ret. 2018)--Watercolor Wings; Sweet Cupcake (sentiment).  Ink--Lemon Lime; Emerald Envy.  Punch--SU-Banner Triple; M. Stewart-Butterfly Trio.  Die--Leafy Eyelet Scallop.  SU Basic Pearls (Copic colored).  Chatterbox sentiment/ verse.  Size: 4-3/4 x 6".

Bright Green, Navy, & Lemon Lime for a Birthday!

A friend has a birthday just a few days before Valentine's Day.  I found I can do a bit of cardmaking after my hand surgery...one-handed as long as I take it slow since it isn't my predominate hand.  I can hold things still with the weight of the cast as long as I do not put any pressure on it and keep it in a relaxed state.  So, I may get a few cards done if I'm lucky without causing undo pain.

I've had this pretty patterned Stampin' Up paper called Naturally Eclectic for about a year, and I thought I'd use it along with the companion stamp set.  I focused on the two-step stamped flower and double stamped it twice, and then fussy-cutting one to pop and layer over the other on its small rectangular flower panel.  To finish it, I mat-framed it with a postage stamp edged die, and I used its larger size to mat-frame my patterned background paper.  The card fell together fairly easily, except for the modification I had to make for my smaller postage mat-frame to fit the size I wanted my stamped flower panel to be.

I designed the inside to match elements found on the card front and composed a little birthday verse for my friend.  Take a peek below at the finished design.

Ingredients:  SU Products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Night of Navy, Emerald Envy.  Pattern--Naturally Eclectic.  Stamps--Oh So Eclectic; Sweet Cupcake (sentiment).  Ink--Lemon Lime; Emerald Envy.  Punch--Classic Label.  Ribbon--1/2" Finely Woven-Lemon Lime.  Die--Avery Elle Postage Stamp Rectangles (smaller modified).  Darice Pearl Stickers--4 cm + seedlings.  Chatterbox verse.  Size: 4-3/4 x 6".

A Birthday Journey!

It's my husband's birthday this coming week-end, and I needed to get his card made this past week.  I was anxious to begin, because I had a new Tim Holtz die...the Globe, and ideas were beginning to come fast and furious, especially after I reviewed possible Splitcoaststamper challenges to catch up on.  This will be my last card for a while, as my hand surgery is scheduled for Monday, and it will be about a six-week recovery.

One challenge needed some shine, another die-cut word(s), another some spritzing and/or splattering, another to use up something set aside to maybe use later, another to be inspired by color, and then there was the one that needed something natural and not man-made...what could be more natural than Mother Earth...a planet!  

I had printed a vintage map, which didn't print quite right and ended up with some purple splotches, but I loved the vintage look of it and decided to keep it to see if it would fit somewhere...somehow.  I decided to re-color the map with my Copics to enrich its color and cover up the wonky purple areas.  Then, I added some metallic antique copper spritzing and splattering for even more eye-appeal and/or cover-up!  Since my Globe die has longitude and latitude lines, it will work for the Alphabet challenge, letter L.  To add depth, I die-cut four globes and four Happy Birthday die-cut sentiments so they would pop up off the card front.  I also spritzed the top gold matte foil layers of both with antique copper spritzing and splattering to add even more interest.  I had some little tiny metallic gold stars in a cup on my craft tape since early December and decided to scatter those randomly on the card front as well.  I was really please with how they looked, so I painstakingly glued each down.

My last step was to decorate the card inside to coordinate with the front design and to compose a birthday verse.  I am really pleased with how my husband's birthday card turned out.  I love the vintage flair, and I think he will be please.  He decided he only wanted one card for his birthday and that was mine, because the store-bought cards are a waste of money he says.  He added that he would rather have a candy bar for a card, and it would be okay if the children need to add a happy birthday paper taped to the bar.  I told him perhaps a handwritten tag tied with a string would work!  I promised I would pass the word to the klds!  I also let them know he was doing his "baa-hum-bug" birthday dance, which he does each year!  

Here is his one and only birthday card below with the inside design pictured as well!

Ingredients:  Papers:  Cardstocks--SU Early Espresso, Darice Timeless Pack (tan), Vintage North America Map (printed from Pinterest); DCWV Solid Golds Stack/ Matte Foil.  Dies: Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations: Globe; Dee's Distinctively Dies: Happy Birthday, Small.  Punch: EK-Victorian Corner.  Homemade Sprtizer: Folk Art Metallic Antique Copper diluted w/ water.  Copic Markers (map coloring).  Recollection: Large Copper Rhinestones.  Stash: bitty gold metallic stars.  Chatterbox verse.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".