AAA Birthday challenge #65 - background focus

Good morning friends and welcome to September.  I love autumn and I'm hoping it's cool and crisp without too much rain this year (I'm never happy when it comes to the weather am I? lol). Today I'm sharing my card for this month's brand new challenge over at the AAA Birthday challenge. This month Kateryna is the hostess and she has chosen 'background focus' as our theme.  Our guest designer this month is Hanneke so please pop over and leave her some love. 

 

It was my sister's birthday last week so used this opportunity to make my DT card.  Whilst looking through my stash I rediscovered this stamp/stencil combo and I think I have only used it once before so decided to give it some love.  

Here is my card:

A closer look at the background:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I took a white panel 6" x 6" and stamped the butterfly bodies in black ink.  I then took the matching stencils and did the upper wings in yellow ink and the lower wings in pink ink using a lighter and darker shade of both colours for some shading.  Once I finished I trimmed the panel down and it ended up being 4 1/2" by 5 1/2" so I decided to make my card size 5"x 6".  I matted the panel onto a black card mat with double sided tape.  I stamped my sentiment in black ink and cut it out with a stitched circle die and used a slightly larger circle to cut a black mat.  I didn't want to hide too much of the background so cut the top of the circle and added it to the very top of the panel with foam tape.  There is an add-on stamp & die set that has co-ordinating butterflies so I decided to die cut a couple of butterflies and used the same stencils to colour their bodies.  I added one butterfly to the edge of my sentiment circle for some added interest.  I added the panel onto my card base with foam tape.  As a finishing touch I added a few tiny white pearls randomly over the background.  For the inside I cut the same size panels as the front and stamped a sentiment in black ink.  I used a tiny strip of the panel that I had left over when I trimmed it down so added that at the bottom of the panel and added another butterfly over top with liquid glue.  I added this to the card base with double sided tape.  A really bright and happy card and I hope you like it. 

I would like to enter my cards into the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - die cuts and/or stencils

Allsorts challenge - getting sentimental

Crafty Animals challenge - must include an animal (or insect)

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Cut It Up challenge - ATG

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - happy birthday

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - always birthday

Pearly Sparkles challenge - pink, pearls and/or sparkle (use at least 1)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - make it feminine

The Design Team have created amazing cards as always so please pop over to the blog and check them out and perhaps leave them some love on their personal blogs.   

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge this month but don't forget it has to be birthday themed.  I can't wait to see your creations in the linky.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Taylored Expressions - butterflies stamp & stencil combo

Taylored Expressions - butterfly wishes stamp & die set

Honey Bee Stamps - inside: birthday sentiments

Uniko - floral vines stamp (for happy birthday)

Uniko - everyday family stamp (for auntie)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - bubblegum pink, passionate pink, wild dandelion, honey mustard

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 3 (for stitched circle, Master Layouts 5 (for plain circle)

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - pearls - soft snowball mix - store now closed

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card

Hobbycraft - A4 black card

Versafine - onyx black ink