Happy Anniversary Heather and Ken

My beautiful sister Heather and her wonderful husband Ken were married 7 years ago today in a fabulous outdoor wedding.   I was ao happy and excited to be my sister's maid of honour, and we had such a fun time leading up to the wedding.  When the big day arrived everything was perfect just as they'd planned. For obvious reasons I didn't want to post this card earlier but I've been just busting at the seams to share these cards with you and now that their special day is here and the original's off in the mail it's okay.  I'm dedicating this post to them..........Happy Anniversay Heather and Ken, hope you're having fun today!

The idea for this card stemmed from my prep work in assembling a four card  "All Occasion Card Class" featuring butterflies and clean and simple designs that even a beginning cardmaker could easily do. Since I really like working with monochromatic designs and tone on tone neutrals (white or very vanilla) my colour choice for these cards was simple.  For my secondary colours I chose various shades of blues and purples to coordinate with the Butterfly Pansy technique I would be demonstrating.

While making my mock up card, I was attracted to one made by Trudy Sjolander featured in the September 2011 CardMaker Magazine.  Trudy used natural cardstocks for her base and layers and minimal stamping and die cuts for the rest of her fabulous card. That fit in nicely with my concept of "clean and simple (CAS)" and from that moment I could envision how my card would look.

So without further ado here's the card I designed for my All Occasion Card class which is running on September 15th.  The card base and top layer of the card are in Brocade Blue. I've texturized the top layer with the new Snow Burst Embossing Folder in the Holiday Mini (it's not just for Christmas Cards as you can plainly see!).  A layer of Whisper White is nestled below that.  A little later on in this post I'll share a tip on how to conserve your paper stocks when you're layering, but first I want to show you the inside of the card and take a closer look at the butterflies. 

The inside of the card, features the Top Note Die stamped in Brocade Blue with the "Congratulations" sentiment from Stampin' Ups! Spring Occasions Mini catalogue. This hostess set called "Something to Celebrate" included nine sentiments covering every occasion and was so worthwhile earning! The butterfly and flowers are also from a treasured retired set called "Of the Earth". As you've probably noticed, I just can't seem to put this set away. 

Inside view of the card

The butterfly is double punched from Shimmery White Cardstock and mounted with dimensionals.  A small bow in Whisper White Taffeta ribbon was added to the center of the butterfly using Crystal Effects to mount it. 

This view shows the butterfly layers

Although it's hard to see from the picture, Shimmery White cardstock was used for these butterflies die cut using the Beautiful Wings Sizzix Embosslits Die.  Basic Pearls are the only adornment.

And finally here's the Anniversary Card I made. For Heather and Ken's card I decided to use the colours and texturizing that Trudy had incorporated into her design.  Don't you just love the look of this card too?

Inside view of the card.  The sentiment "Happy Anniversary" is from the "Something to Celebrate" hostess set previously mentioned.  The Butterfly and Flower stamp verse are from the "Of the Earth Set".  All are stamped in Crumb Cake ink to match the cardstock base and layer. 

I've only used one Butterfly die cut topped with the Whisper White Taffeta bow on this card.  Don't you just love that little bow?  They are so fun to make.  If you want a lesson on how to make them check out Diana Gibbs lovely tutorial ............that's where I learned to make them.  They are fun and easy to do!

Basic Pearls are used to add detail to the butterflies.  The small butterflies are adhered to the cardstock using Crystal Effects.  The larger butterfly is mounted on two dimensionals to give some depth. 

Okay so here's my tip I promised to share with you on conserving paper.  For my card I used the negative die cut from the Top Note die as my Whisper White layer.  Yup........... you got it!  The actual Top Note layer was used for the inside of the card and because I centered my 5 1/4" by 4" piece of cardstock over the die before running it through my Big Shot I'm able to use the leftover cardstock for the outer layer. 

This is the negative cut from the Top Note mounted to the front of my card.  I've applied double sided adhesive strip around the frame to secure the next layer. 

This is showing the negative strip before I glued it to the card front and applied the Texture Embossed layer.  Once all the layers are in place no one will even guess that the Whisper White layer isn't a full layer of cardstock. 

Okay well this was a rather lengthy post today but I hope you've enjoyed it.  I still have room for anyone interested in attending my "All Occasion Card Class" on September 15th, so let me know if you're interested in attending.    Have a great day!