Stamped Butterfly Anniversary Card

I am celebrating 15 years of a wonderful marriage to my best friend! Here is the card that I will give to him today. It features one of my favorite TAC sets, Flutter By. This butterfly stamp set will be retiring in July 2009 . Do yourself a favor and grab this set while it is on sale for only $8.21. In fact, all of the stamp sets that will be retired by The Angel Company are ON SALE NOW at 25% OFF. Order before July 1, 2009 because these rubber stamp sets will not be in the new catalog.

In case you are wondering how I created this card let me tell you that it was not at all what I originally envisioned. My alcohol inks were feeling lonely because I hadn't used them in such a long time. I created a green colored background on glossy paper. Then I embossed it with one of my Cuttlebug templates. I thought I had made a mistake putting my paper in because the raised edge wasn't on the side that I wanted. Then I thought....hmmm...those leaves would really stand out if I swiped my black ink over the background. That made the leaves show up quite nicely. I ended up with a background that was just crying out (yes, sometimes my art work talks to me) for some butterflies.

I stamped the butterflies separately with black pigment ink and heat emossed with black embossing powder. I colored them in with Copic Markers, cut them out and then placed them on top of the card. I'll admit that I felt guilty cutting off the antennae and wondered if anyone would notice that they were missing....but it was bothering me so I used some really thin craft wire to re-create them.

Stamps:
Flutter By
Trendy Greetings

Supplies:
Black Embossing Powder
Graphite Black Brilliance Ink