Birthday Butterflies

After obsessing on Hero Arts' Wonderful set, I made this very crisp, elegant, sweet card using all old stuff.

Because using too much new stuff makes all those old stuff feel sad and useless. Right?

I love all those layers of white card stock. Sadly, I've usually already stamped the main panel on Papertrey Stampers Select white cardstock when it becomes obvious that many mats would look awesome. The best way to make these layered cards is with Neenah Solar White cardstock in the 110# for the base and 80# for all the layering. That way, they aren't too bulky. The Neenah and Papertrey are different whites, so once you're committed to the Papertrey, you can't just layer with the Neenah.

Who knew there were so many shades of white? Well, there are. And I do prefer Papertrey's white by a slim margin so it's my go-to white. The Neenah is excellent, though, and if you want to keep things as simple as possible, you could do worse than using it exclusively.

Don't you love that font? So feminine and fresh looking!

To calculate the sizes for this matting, take the measurements of the stamped panel and add 1/8" for the first thin mat, add 5/8" for the wider mat, and add 3/4" for the bottom mat. Note that those numbers are all added to the stamped panel dimensions, not added on to each other. So if your stamped panel is 2" x 3.25", the largest mat will be 2 3/4" x 4".

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and if you're thinking of giving up something for Lent, you could do much worse than this list from Pope Francis. I think it will be much harder than just giving up chocolate.

If you observe Lent, do you give up something for Lent? If so, what? Inquiring minds....


Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Simon Says Stamp It's Your Birthday!
ink: Archival black, Hero Arts raspberry jam
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punches, rhinestones, glue pen