Butterfly Thank You

This is a very simple card but it has a wonderful story to go with it  that will explain the theme.

I was invited to have lunch with some of my friends at our local community college. I used to serve on the Foundation Board there and we were catching up on all sorts of things. It was a lovely spring day, but was most amazing was the influx of butterflies all over the campus.  It was incredible.  When I drove into the parking lot I first saw them darting in and out of the cars - or so it seemed. They were nowhere one minute and everywhere the  next.  You may have heard about the butterfly migration that was hitting southern California, and in all my years living here, I had never ever heard of butterfly migration, let alone see it.  I was a bit of a skeptic until that day.  So I walked up to the admin doors and stopped at least a dozen times just marveling at all of the butterflies playing a sort of game of hide and seek.  I was enthralled.

So onto the lunch in an office that had windows all alone. There were four of us enjoying great company and great food but I cannot tell you how many times each of us stopped mid-sentence to watch a group of butterflies darting in and out of the bushes.  Now when I refer to a group of butterflies, I mean HUNDREDS of them at any given moment.  We were all mesmerized. I learned later that they are California Painted Lady butterflies.  They were small, but no less magnificent in their splendor and sheer numbers........  I have lived in southern California most of my life and I don't remember ever seeing anything like it.  It was just amazing.......

So to thank these lovely ladies for a wonderful lunch and great conversation, the thank you card just HAD to include butterflies -right?

 I continue to try to photography foiling with success, but I am not there yet!

The cardstock is actually silver foiled butterflies, but they are reflecting the light

and shimmering in a wide range of colors. The greeting was foiled on the 

Gemini Foil Press and the butterflies from Graciellie Design (Moments of Bliss) 

were printed, cut and foiled with DecoFoil in turquoise.  They are so much

prettier in person.

I love the simplicity of this card.  I am definitely in a foiling rut and don't plan on stopping anytime soon!

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Floral Get Well - Power Poppy

I have been trying to embrace working more with digi images (aka digi stamps) and everytime I do - I just love them.  Two of my absolute FAVORITE COMPANIES are Power Poppy and Graciellie Design..  Be sure to check them out if you love beautiful floral and inspiring images.

This card uses a Power Poppy "freebie" - Kindness is the Way.  I used the image for the background which I printed on a mono laser printer and foiled in Deco Foil, and then cut out one of the floral images with the Silver Bullet Platinum and colored with pencils.  There are a lot of different products used on this card and I am so happy with the end result.

The sentiment uses a FoilStamp from Crafters Companion and is foiled on vellum.  I love foiling and use the FoilPress from Crafters Companion, laminating foil from Thermoweb, and the new WRMK foil quilling pen all used on this card (!) - I love foil!

It is hard to capture the beauty of foil, but I tried. You can see

the background images showing through in a subtle way.

I am still working hard at my coloring skills and I admit I have a long way to go, but it's all a journey - right?  The beautiful image is from Power Poppy and I used the print and cut through SCAL along with the Silver Bullet Platinum machine.  It cuts with such accuracy and I marvel at the flexibility it gives me.  I cut out the image after it is printed and then I color it just to be sure I don't wait to cut out a colored image and then do something careless and not get a good cut.  If that happens, it is user error and not the machine so I want to be sure I give myself the best chance for success!!

Cut out perfectly with the Silver Bullet Platinum

and colored with Spectrum Noir Pencils.

Still on the mat using the regular tip of the WRMK foil quilling pen

and champagne foil. This was done with the Silver Bullet Platinum

and as you can see, worked perfectly and beautifully.

Removed from the mat so you can see more detail but

it doesn't show the foil sheen as well.

Tried to angle this so some of the background foiling would show.

This is using the Thermoweb Amber Watercolour to give

a lovely array of colors.  I wish you could see it in person.

If you have not discovered digi stamps yet, I highly encourage you to give them a try - there are so many options.  And it is just so much fun to pretend to be an artist when I clearly am not!  But all of these amazing artists make us all strive to be more creative and I am grateful.

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