Dare to Dream and Sweet Friend - two cards the same but different

Hello Fellow Crafters,

Brrrr! It's cold outside. We did get a glimpse of blue sky this morning but it's clouded over now :( Hope it's better where you are.

The card today was made for this month's swap over on the UKPC Yahoo Group. The challenge this time was to include bugs or insects. To quote my granddaughter, Jenny, 'I don't do bugs' so it's butterflies and bees instead.

Dare to Dream, is the second of two attempts ... I had trouble with the stamping on the first, but this one is okayish.

The butterflies were die cut from scraps of patterned paper, in two different sizes, and dry embossed, then heat embossed with crystal powder to obtain that shimmer ... and as a finishing touch, a few brown pearls. It's a struggle, but you might just be able to spot the two crystal embossed bees hovering among the flowers.

The cluster bottom right consists of butterfly and typescript patterned washi tape, a snippet of aqua Core'dinations - distressed and cut to form a banner - a cluster of tiny pearl-centred flowers punched from aqua/white patterned paper and the butterfly.

Sweet Friend, is the first attempt - I've just included a photo so that you can see the difference in the stamping. It's definitely not perfect! However as the stamp itself is intended to have a shabby chic look, I went ahead and completed the card anyway.

Here, the butterflies haven't been heat embossed with crystal powder and I've used different items to create the embellishment cluster, e.g. a felt flower and another snippet of paper to create a banner - otherwise it is very similar.

Materials: plain white square card base; Tim Holtz DI, Peacock Feathers; Dawn Bibby Delicate Scrolls stamp set; cArt-Us Butterfly die set; scraps from Kanban Vintage Tapestry paper pad; Sheena Douglass, I think - correct me if I'm wrong, Dare to Dream sentiment stamp; Wild Rose Studio Everyday Greetings stamp set; Memento Rich Cocoa and Tuxedo Black ink pads; Stamp-N-Stuff Crystal embossing powder; VersaMark water ink pad; various tiny flower paper punches; white and aqua felt flowers from the Works; Wishi Washi Butterfly tape; a snippet of aqua coloured Core'dinations cardstock; white and taupe adhesive pearls in various sizes; cream coloured button twine

Enough scraps have been used in both these cards that I think they merit a visit to Di's playground and submission to Pixie's Crafty Snippets - Week 55.

Right, I have just enough time to visit a few blogs before Pointless begins. And after dinner, I plan to retire to the craft room and indulge in a bit of scrapping ... the EM thinks that word suggests I'm about to indulge in the noble art of pugilism and not the more delicate art of papercrafting! He should see me struggling with some paper punches some time :))

Thanks for visiting and take care folks, wherever you are.

Happy crafting,