Butterfly Birthday Wishes

I have two dear friends with birthdays this month

and wanted to come up with a design

that is on the elegant side.

Since I love the butterfly on the Home Decor cart,

I wanted to make it the focal point of this card.

The card base is 5 1/2 x 6", and

I used double-sided paper from KCs ancestry.com paper stack.

I matted the front 2x, and added a strip of brown patterned paper

that was topped with a berry red strip that was punched with a swirl design.

A lace border was added to the bottom, and the corners were embellished with

the branches from a MS punch and finished off with gold sequins.

The butterfly was cut @ 3" and then cut again in "shadow" @ 3 and 3 1/4".

I embossed both shadows (swirls and swiss dots),

and popped this image 2x - once on the 1st shadow and again on the 2nd.

The oak leaf is from Disney Classics and was a leftover from an older project,

but I thought it fit in nicely with the November birthday theme.

The 2"  circle was cut 2x - once in black and once in white.

The image was stamped, inked in sage, and colored in soft pencil hues.

The inside was finished off with the same punched border as on the front of the card.

The sentiments were computer generated and matted with rounded corners.

I do like to add a personal touch by adding names, so if I

am making cards ahead, I usually wait to personalize the inside.

I used fall colors (red, orange, brown, black) for the overall theme.
A butterfly for the "birth" of a new year and the autumn overtones for this time of year.

I am quite pleased with the finished look and I do hope my

recipients will enjoy them as well.

TFL!