Aloha, all!
After a card with a definitely Autumn theme, I'm back with something that reminds me so much of summer – dragonflies! And it just so happens that today is the start of the next bi-weekly challenge from the SUO Challenges Design Team, with its theme of "Butterflies and Dragonflies."
I started out thinking that I was going to make a "Clean and Simple" (or CAS) card with a single butterfly and a bit of texture. But as I walked to my work table, I saw my newly-arrived early release Christmas bundle, Carols of Christmas. Oh, no! As much as I love making Christmas Cards, it's even too early for me to be blogging about them. There will certainly be a Countdown to Christmas e-mail program going on before too long. But that's an e-mail program with signups, and only those who want early Christmas projects will be signing up for that! You who just like to read about what's happening now can rest assured that I'll not be overdoing Christmas until after Halloween.
The way that the Carols of Christmas set got into this card is in the Thinlit Border, which is one of the elements in the Card Front Builder Thinlits Die set. Now, you don't see the word, "Christmas," in that product name, do you? That's because this lovely card border can be used for so very many kinds of projects, not just those for the holidays.
The thinlit that's in the set is just half of a card front thinlit. First you cut the thinlit around the top or bottom of the card. Then you line up the two little holes in the middle of the sides and cut the thinlit around the other end of the card. It took a few tries for me to say, "I think I've finally got it down!" Did I mention that I tried this with a few pieces of Night of Navy Cardstock that were also hanging around on my work table? (Back to my old habits of not putting stuff away.) So there I was with this large expanse of Night of Navy cardstock in the middle of this die-cut piece, and not a clue with how I was going to handle it. So I started going through my butterfly and dragonfly thinlits/framelits, and I saw this lovely shape, with the dragonflies flying in some sort of formation, in the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits set.. That was it, and the card was almost done.
To find a sentiment to go with this, I first went to my Dragonfly Dreams Stamp Set (this was a dragonfly card, after all). And there was a sentiment that was just perfect for this! I heat embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder, and I thought my card was done. But, after I took my first photograph of the card for this blog post, I decided that it needed a little something to brighten it up. So out came my Rhinestone Basic Jewels and each little dragonfly got a little bit of bling!
There are lots more dragonfly card ideas – along with a butterfly or two – on the SUO Challenges Blog. I hope you'll be inspired by at least one of us to make your own lovely card and enter it in our challenge! You have until a week from Saturday (6 am USA Eastern Time) to enter!
This is gorgeous Robin, – I love the clean and simpleness of this card!! And you've lined up those thinlits PERFECTLY. I used these and then had to cover up the centre with some pretties to cover up the not-quite-lined-up frame!!