THINKING OF YOU

I've been having so much fun playing with brand new and never used items lately. I just received the stencil used on this card, and the sentiment "Thinking of you" die has been sitting around my craft room a while now, having never been used. Here's the card I made:

Here's how I made it:
The stencil used is Memory Box's "Garden Umbrel" (#88512). I stenciled the image on white cardstock using "Peeled Paint" Distress Ink and Hero Arts "Soft Purple" Shadow Ink. Some tips for using this stencil:

• Be very careful when stenciling the green "flower" portion of the image. The corner pieces where the flower base portions meet with the stem are not attached to each other, so they lift up easily, causing smudges. I would suggest taping them down slightly above the "joint areas" and stencil that area and the stem first. Then remove the tape and stencil the rest of the flower base, still being extra careful.
• I flipped the stencil over, after cleaning it, to stencil the leaf portion. I wanted it bending toward the stem, rather than away from it.
• When I stenciled the purple portion of the card, I stenciled once, then shifted the stencil slightly up and to the sides a couple of times to get the fullness that I wanted.

After the stencil was complete, I trimmed the white cardstock and distress the edges with "Milled Lavender" and "Dusty Concord" Distress Inks. Before gluing it to the purple background, I tied some purple twine around the lower portion of the image. Once adhered to the purple background, I adhered it to my white 5x7" cardstock base.

The die cut sentiment was cut out of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp's "Thinking of You" die (#S122).

For the butterflies, I used the Martha Stewart "Classic Butterfly 3-in-1" punch, and flat back pearls for the centers.

To purchase the Memory Box stencil used here, as well as other high quality craft items, please visit www.thefruitofmyhands.com  
for excellent prices and top-notch customer service!