Happy Day card

It's rare that I spend two days working on a card, but for this one I did. The Papertrey Ink dies I used to make the border cut from non-border dies are the Strip Stitch die and the butterfly and "happy" from Pretty Peonies. After watching the video carefully, I promptly cut off the wrong side lol. So I had to run it through again with a second A2 mat.

I found some stunning deep brown (with glitter) paper from K&Company Classic K Specialty Paper Pad which I wanted to show through under the Strip Stitch die cut I butted the border cut up against. I also left a lot of the dots in the cut. I distressed the non-image parts of the border and the K&Company paper with the edge of a pair of scissors.

Then I stumbled across a very very old piece of  pearlized vellum paper (easily 15 years old) and cut 2 butterflies, the peony and leaf image and "happy", then stamped them with Versamark and embossed them with Zing Chocolat Opaque embossing powder (except for the leaves which I stamped in black ink and left unembossed. The butterfly on the flower is stamped and embossed whole and then folded in half. I used Scor-Tape to attach the flower and butterflies, I ran the "happy" through my little Xyron.

At first glance, it might appear that the star of the card is the Pretty Peonies stamp set and matching dies, but to my mind the even bigger stars are the Strip Stitch die (and the stamp I made out of fun foam with it) and this fabulous Sprinkle N Sparkle Cosmic Semi-Transparent Pineapple Embossing Powder. It is the tiniest little jar (I bought at the 2010 CHA Supershow), and I still have almost all of it even after embossing all this. I was really pleased with how the foam rubber stamp lined up with the border cut and matched that up with the die cut.

I put everything on an A2 card with about an inch cut off the front so the border images (especially the Strip Stitch die can be seen to best effect : ). All the cardstock used is Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White which is heavy enough to stand up to all the additives.

I felt bad that the K&Co paper was so covered up, so I added a small strip of it on the inside.

Make It Monday #175: Creative Card Borders Using Non-Border Dies and Simon Says Anything Goes (note to self, second entry)