An Anniversary "Card"

I made my husband his usual anniversary card this year and it turned out okay.  I'm never happy enough with the cards I make for my husband.  I always think they should be ... MORE.  Either more romantic or more pretty or just plain more special.  Since they are for him I would like them to be the best I can make.  So this year, along with the usual card I also made an anniversary journal page. 

Let's start with the card.  It also started out as a journal page from very early in the process.  The images I chose really didn't work well together as a whole page but I liked certain parts of the design.  I ripped it out of the journal and cut it into different size panels and they work much better separately. It's pretty but also kind of plain.  He loves it, which is really what matters most since it was for him!

But I thought I could do better and decided to make a journal layout to celebrate our anniversary.  I wanted a romantic page but I didn't want pink or red because those say Valentine's to me.  One of our wedding colors was purple so I went with every shade of purple paint I had. I added some silver to give it shine and teal and white for contrast.

The challenge in my mind was how to make a romantic layout without making it too feminine.  I used my favorite Stampin' Up butterfly, an open diamond weave and a script stamp both from Stamp Camp and a the largest Eiffel Tower from Viva Las Vegastamps. All were stamped with acrylic paint instead of using ink. Tip for you - when you're using paint to stamp something as detailed as the butterfly be sure to wash it right away.  Normally, I have no issues getting paint off the stamp.  It just peels right off when it's dry.  But the butterfly has a lot of tiny crevices and I'm still working on getting that one clean!

To add more texture and interest I grabbed the smaller diamond weave from Stamp Camp and the textured diamonds from Sin City Stamps.  To make the variegated diamonds, I just smeared three different colors of acrylic paint on them with my finger.

 

After the images were in place and dry I took a stencil and USArt Quest's 101 Heavy molding paste and added some floral touches.  The flower placed over the butterfly was to cover up a stamping error and is great camouflage.  Even I can't find it now!

More 101 was used to add some polka dots along the edges.  The words were stamped with matte white acrylic paint so that they would be bold enough to stand up to the shiny background. 

There it is...my anniversary gift to my husband for our 18th year.  The first anniversary "card" I truly like!

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