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".

Sister-in-Law Birthdays in July - Number 1!

A little sunshine card for Dianne, a lovely lady with a sunshiny sense of humor and a quick wit.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Daffodil Yellow, Bermuda Bay, Shimmery White.  Bright Collections DSP Stack-Yellow word pattern.  Stamps--Sunburst Sayings.  Ink--Early Espresso.  Embossing Folder--Arrows (retired).  Punches--1-1/4" + 1-3/8" Circles; Bitty Butterfly.  Pearls.  Other:  Papertrey Ink stamps: Big Birthday Wishes.  Martha Stewart punch: 3-1 Classic Butterflies (inside).  EK punch: Scallop Corners (modified).

The Card's Story & Other Tidbits

As I mentioned in a June post, I have six sister-in-laws from my husband's side of the family, and of those six, two have birthdays in July.  The first July sister-in-law is Dianne.  She is one my husband's brother's wives, whom I met when we were still teenagers and all just dating!  WOW. . .that is along time ago. . .  I'd have to do the math to figure out just how many years ago that actually was!

As mentioned above, Dianne has a wonderful sense of humor and a quick wit, so you would think her card would be humorous for sure, but not this year.  I attended a card class while visiting in Redding, CA, and our hostess was Darla Watson, a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  She presented a lovely card design for us to re-create, which reminds me of sunshine.  Right then and there, I decided this card will be perfect for Dianne as she can be like a ray of sunshine when her humor gets injected into our visits.  

I loved Darla's card design, and I cased her card exactly, using the new Sunburst Stampin' Up die.  The cards colors are cheerful Daffodail Yellow set off with bright and Shimmery White and a bit of contrast with the turquoise shade, Bermuda Bay.  The patterned paper is from the Brights Collection DSP Stack using the word print and also in Daffodil Yellow.  I think the sentiment circle replicates the sun shining brightly with a little butterfly spotlight for a bit of femininity.  I do think this card is perfect for Dianne and hope she likes it as well.  

While on my Mt. Shasta Girls' Get-Away, my goal was to complete as many partially finished cards and those without my finishing inside design and verses so I could claim them really finished!  Dianne's card was one I really wanted totally complete and ready to mail as her birthday would be soon after arriving home.  I  decided on the perfect verse that fit just this birthday occasion for Dianne and created an interior decoration to coordinate with the pretty card front.  For that bit of humor needed, I think she will get a chuckle out of the birthday verse.