Exchange card featuring a die cut butterfly cut from a masterboard, an embossed cardstock background and some ribbon and a die cut frame

For my second exchange card I  started with a large black card that fit in a large envelope from my stash.  I added two pieces of scrapbook paper to create my background - a gray one at the top and a blue with a gray brocade at the bottom.  To create my focal element I embossed the blue cardstock layer (sponged previously) using the Swiss Dots embossing folder and mounted the masterboard butterfly in the opening in the same way as my first card - securing the butterfly's body with regular tape to the back of the masterboard layer.  I adhered a black body die cut which had been trimmed to the perforations to my butterfly which finished off this piece.  The small cut which occurred while die cutting is masked by the embossing.  

I decided to add a wide ribbon to this card and searched for an interesting way to incorporate it.  I decided to hang it from a silver frame die cut.  I slipped the ribbon through  and then added a small piece of double sided tape to the front of the frame behind the ribbon which kept it in place. I coloured two clear rhinestones with a blue permanent marker before positioning them in the openings in the frame and securing them with regular tape on the back. Next, I adhered the frame to the front of my card close to the top using double sided tape letting the ribbon simply hang from it.  I found a small font greeting in my stash which perfectly fit in the opening of my frames so I simply sponged its edges with blue ink before adhering it with double sided tape in the opening.  I trimmed both ends of my ribbon diagonally to be just above the bottom of my card.  Finally, I added my butterfly focal element adhering it to the front of my card over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  I found this an elegant way to using wide ribbon on my card.  I will do that again!!   Therese

Exchange card featuring masterboard background, embossed die cut butterfly and a little font greeting

Here is the first card I made with the masterboard I created a few days ago.  I trimmed the masterboard into 6 pieces and cut a blue layer of cardstock the same size as one of the pieces.  I laid them onto each other and aligned them over the butterfly on my large Sizzix die and to avoid cutting off pieces due to the proximity of the other dies I carefully positioned my small cutting plate (broken pieces) over the area I wanted to cut.  I did get a tiny cut on the lower left hand side which is covered by the greeting on my card.  I embossed the blue butterfly for this card and then added a black die cut body (on the same die) which I trimmed to the perforated edge.  I placed the butterfly into the opening of the masterboard piece and used regular tape to adhere the body of the butterfly to the back of the master board layer which allows the wings to be raised a bit to add dimension.  I decided to use a large envelope and made a kraft card to fit inside.  I added a blue colour printed background which had previously been stamped with a random texture background in a light green which worked very well with this focal element.  After adhering the background to my card front I added a strip of green cardstock to which I had added a length of narrow black ribbon gluing the ends to the back of the layer before adhering to my card front.  I auditioned my butterfly element and decided to add black to the edges to help frame it.  I ran a black permanent marker on all the edges.  That was much better!  I adhered this large element to my card front using 3D foam tape.  Finally, I added a small rectangular font greeting in blue to the bottom right corner.  I flagged the right hand edge and added three little dots with a black permanent marker on the left hand edge.  I like the way this one turned out.  One of my exchange cards ready to go!!

Therese