Thinking of You

I recently found out that the sister of a woman I know passed away. I decided to make her and her other sister a sympathy card. I saw this post by Jennifer McGuire on floating die cuts, and thought it would be a neat technique to try for my CAS card.

I began by cutting an A2 card base from heavyweight black cardstock. I marked the top & bottom line for where I wanted my die cutting to be. I chose the "Fancy Fritillary" die from Our Daily Bread Designs, using only the inner portion. I taped it in place on my card base, and positioned my cutting plates to die cut only the middle part, as Jennifer had demonstrated. I repeated this to cut another butterfly. When I'd finished the die cutting, I used my craft knife and a metal ruler to cut along the lines I'd drawn between & to either side of the butterflies.

To reinforce the die cut area, I cut a piece of acetate to 4.25" by a little taller than the opening. I ran some ATG adhesive on the inside of my card above & below the die cut area, added a bit of Ranger Multi Medium Matte to the backs of the butterflies so they would not flop around, and placed my acetate. To hide the seams, I cut 2 more pieces of black cardstock, and adhered them to the nside of the card above & below the opening.

For the greeting, I stamped one from Hero Arts' "Prayers" set on a piece of blue cardstock, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I trimmed that into a banner, and adhered it to my card front. I used the same blue cardstock to create an inner card, which I adhered to the inside of my card base. This both helps the butterflies pop and gives me a place inside to write my message. I added some clear acrylic gems to the front with some PPA matte glue, and that finished this card. I'd say the die cutting was the hardest part, but even so, the card came together pretty quickly. Hopefully this will bring the recipients a bit of comfort.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Animal Magic" challenge.