words

Words are powerful things. They tell stories of our lives when we look at our scrapbook pages. They take us to a far away places when we read a good book. They cut like a knife when used against us in hurtful ways. They make us smile when we read a handwritten note from a friend.

To me, there is something so special about sending and receiving cards from friends. We can email, Facebook, text and twitter but it's not the same as getting a card in the mail with wonderful words from a friend. Today I took some time to make some special cards for some special people. Knowing that I make others feel good makes me feel good inside.

In my last post, I made these embellished sacks to have handy in my stash. I love to use them for thicker cards that have raised embellishments....or embellishments that hang over the edge of the card and won't fit into a regular envelope. Such is the case with the cards I made today. They both raised embellishments that hang off the card. I'll be using a few of my gift sacks to package up my cards at the end of my post.
I knew that I wanted to make cards of encouragement today + I wanted to use more butterflies like I did on my embellished sacks. Lisa Johnson's set Flutterby Friend was just perfect. The butterflies coordinated with my dimensional embellishments and the sentiments were just what I was looking for. I stamped my images and colored them with the Copic markers shown below. Orange was my accent color for the day so I added orange glitter to the little butterflies and stitched around my focal piece with orange thread. So fun to get out my Copics and just color today.
I also created some dimensional butterflies by stitching together layers of punched butterflies and a scalloped circle. By leaving the threads long I created tails and antennas for the butterflies. Colored rhinestones finish off the butterflies. I also stitched a few small butterflies to Pink Parcel Tags so that my card would have a grouping of three butterflies.
Here I'm using Chocolate Baker's Twine to finish off my card. I like to use the twine in place of ribbon sometimes when I want a lighter feel to my cards. I tucked a snippet of lace from the thrift shop over the twine before tying a bow. This adds another accent of orange to my cards.
Nothing better than a little stack of cards, especially when they were created with someone special in mind.
For the base of my cards I used Fine Linen cardstock. A soft color that I love to use as a neutral lately. The butterflies were made from the Signature Series: Butterfly die, then a Martha Stewart scalloped circle punch then a Martha Stewart small butterfly punch on top. You can see the butterfly tails and antennas that were created by leaving the threads long. Love that whimsical feel.
At the bottom of my cards you can see the stitched layers, including some vintage wallpaper that I cut with a PTI scalloped border die.
On the inside of my cards I typed a note to my friends then added more machine stitching at the bottom. The words *flutter by* from the Flutterby Friend set were stamped along the bottom. I stamped the image three times without re-inking the image to create a faded out look.
If you'll remember on my embellished sacks, I sprayed some White Tags to use as little name tags. I used one of my alphabet sets to personalize the name tags with my friends' names. I love how personal this makes a gift or card.
I tucked my finished cards inside the brown paper sacks, then added the glittered clothespins and dainty doilies and my completed tags from yesterday.
A fun little bundle of mail to send out for sure. I tuck these inside bubble mailers for mailing.
How about you? Have you sent out some encouraging words lately?