A good friend of mine is going through a rough time, recovering from surgery. I wanted to let her know she continues to be in my thoughts and prayers. To make a more feminine card, I chose soft colors and added some pearl embellishments. I started with Brocade Blue card stock as my card base (sorry it’s a retired color, but I must use what I have) and ran it through my Big Shot(113439), since it IS my favorite tool of all time, with the the Finial Press embossing folder(115963). Immediately I have a beautiful card already! Then I added a Very Vanilla(101650) insert, rounded the corners on one side and stamped the scroll image from the Strength & Hope stamp set with Crumb Cake(121030), stamping off some ink for a very subtle background. To soften the edges, I sponged them with Crumb Cake. Before attaching this piece to my card, I stamped the butterfly from the Strength & Hope stamp set in Rose Red(101778) toward the top. I hope you were able to get this set before the end of last month! I also stamped this butterfly on Pink Pirouette card stock(111351), again with Rose Red ink, cut it out and attached it directly on top of the stamped image on the Very Vanilla piece, curling the wings slightly with my bone folder to make it look like it is flying. Having the antennae already stamped on the Very Vanilla allowed me to not need to cut them out of the Pink Pirouette image – very helpful! I added some pearls from the Basic Pearls(119247) to indicate the body of the butterfly – I’ve seen this many times. Instead of adding ribbon, I decided to use the Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch(119275) with Wild Wasabi card stock(108641). Ribbon would look beautiful as well. For the sentiment, I stamped Night of Navy(102977) on a scrap piece of Brocade Blue using the Curly Cute stamp set(117014 for wood, 120510 for clear). I cut the tail using the 1-3/8″ square punch(119877). I could have just used scissors, but using this punch was much quicker 
. I sponged the edges with Night of Navy to help define it from the background, curled the ends of this little banner to add some depth, attaching it in two spots with Mini Glue Dots(103683) so it would stay curled off the card. By giving a hand made card, I think the “thinking of you” sentiment means just a little bit more, don’t you?
