Cards - Birds & Butterflies

August is typically our rainy season here in the valley. Since I don't have to go out to mow the lawn (!) and I have some birthday & anniversary cards to make for August, I've been working on a few cards this past week.

With a person in mind who likes birds, I chose to use a stamp of a couple of birds from the "Best Friends" acrylic set by Inkadinkado. They were colored with Prismacolor pencils and layered on patterned paper from BasicGrey, the Sugared collection. I lightly sponged on some distress ink to help tone down the white cardstock and also edged it with the same ink. This is the first time I've used decorative Twill tape; I like it but it'll be a bit lumpy for mailing in a standard envelope.

It takes me awhile to pick a layout let alone colors so I've gotten into the habit of making more than one at a time, using at least a couple of different layouts, seeing what I like better, sometimes liking all or none.

As I made the Birthday card, it dawned on me that the stamp of the 2 birds would be good for an Anniversary card too.

I think this patterned paper looks antiquish, good for an Anniversary of say, more than 14 years? : ) Ours is next Thursday, 15 years!! Lots of love and prayers, thru the highs & lows. Ok, back to cards... The shade of brown used for matting matches the orangish brown dots on the patterened paper, tho you may not be able to tell from this small picture.

Stamps: Birds-Inkadinkado "Best Friends" acrylic set, Happy Anniv.-Stampin' Up, Happy Bday-Stampabilities

Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink-Charcoal, TH Distress Ink-Antique Linen; Prismacolor Pencils

Paper: Solid-DCWV; Patterned-BasicGrey Sugared Collection

Twill-Creative Impressions

_________________________________________

After a few of those, I moved on to someone else's Birthday. She likes purple. Even tho I had a color picked out - Purple - I was kind of overwhelmed by the paper and image choices so I tried to get back to keeping it simple in my mind. I chose the butterfly from the same acrylic stamp set as the birds and some fun, not too big, bold or busy background paper that actually matched my Birthday wishes for her - Love, Laughter & Happiness (that happened to be in purple!) : ) I didn't have a small Happy Birthday that I liked for the tag so I went with ol' reliable (and true) - Thinking of You. I stamped a big Happy Birthday inside.

The purple Stickles used to highlight the stamped image reflected the camera flash a little brightly! I didn't realize how bright till I had the pics loaded. I think you get the idea of how Stickles adds bling! I like Stickles! (It's a brand of glitter glue that comes in many colors and in small bottles, found in most stamp & scrapbooking stores.)

Stamps: Butterfly-Inkadinkado "Best Friends" acrylic set, ToU-Endless Creations

Ink: VersaMagic Chalk Ink (DewDrop)-Eggplant; Stickles-Purple

Paper: Solid-DCWV, Patterned-Hot Off the Press "Purple Happiness"