Tag: Butterfly

Pastel Green and Blue Daisy Birthday Card

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's CreationsLeave a comment

Kia ora Koutou

Soft pastels are always a beautiful choice for a birthday card, and today’s design combines delicate blue daisies with gentle greens and touches of gold for a look that’s both fresh and elegant.

Dies were provided by Amazing Paper Grace for today’s creation.

Design Inspiration

This card was inspired by the calming feel of pastel tones—think soft sky blues, muted mint greens, and a whisper of buttery gold. The blue daisies take centre stage, but in a much softer, more delicate way than bold florals.

The overall look is light, airy, and perfect for celebrating in a subtle, elegant style.

Card Details

  • Florals: Pastel blue daisies with softly inked centres
  • Foliage: Light mint green leaves
  • Accents: Touches of honey gold accents for the sentiment, butterfly and layering for a gentle shimmer
  • Background: A lightly ink-blended pastel wash with soft stenciling to coordinate with the soft blue daisies panel over a soft mint green base
  • Sentiment: A delicate gold birthday greeting

Design Tips

  • Ink blend the daisy petals for that soft pastel finish
  • Choose limited muted tones rather than bright colours to keep the look cohesive
  • Add soft texture with stenciling a background for the flowers to frame rather than bold layers
  • Keep embellishments minimal—let the softness shine

Finishing Touches

A sweet butterfly in coordinating colours and a few tiny gems add just the right amount of detail while keeping the card elegant and refined.

Step-by-Step: Pastel Blue Daisy Birthday Card

Step 1: Prepare Your Card Base

Create a white card base and add a soft mint green die cut panel with a soft, subtle pattern on the edge.

Step 2: Create the Background

Lightly ink blend your panel using soft pastel shades—think pale blue. Use masking strips for a crisp edge. Keep it very subtle so it doesn’t overpower the florals. Layer the panel with gold card before adding to the card base.

Step 3: Die Cut the Florals

Cut your daisy layers from white cardstock.

  • Ink blend the petals with a soft pastel blue
  • Add a slightly deeper blue toward the centres for dimension
  • Shape the petals gently using a stylus or your fingers

Step 4: Create the Centres

Die cut the flower centres and colour them with a soft yellow or warm neutral tone. You can add a tiny touch of green to coordinate with the foliage and background.

Step 5: Die Cut the Foliage

Cut leaves from the same soft mint green cardstock that was used in the background and ink blend using soft greens like sage or mint. Keep the tones light and airy to match the pastel theme.

Step 6: Arrange Your Design

Before gluing, lay out your daisies and foliage on the panel.

  • Start with the leaves as a base
  • Add your largest flowers first
  • Fill in with smaller florals or extra leaves

This helps create a balanced and natural-looking arrangement.

Step 7: Add Dimension

Adhere elements using a mix of glue and foam tape.

  • Raise some petals and flowers for depth
  • Keep others flat for contrast

Step 8: Add the Sentiment

Add a die cut birthday sentiment in soft gold that coordinates with the gold layering in the background.

Step 9: Finishing Touches

Complete your card with:

  • A few blue gems
  • Gentle shaping of petals and leaves if needed
  • A sweet butterfly using the same colours as the card

Step 10: Assemble the Card

Attach your finished panel to the card base, making sure everything is secure and balanced.

Final Thoughts

Pastel palettes are perfect when you want something gentle, feminine, and timeless. This combination of soft blue, green, and gold creates a birthday card that feels calm, fresh, and beautifully understated.

Share the Joy

And don’t forget to pin this project for later inspiration — you’ll definitely want to revisit it when you are in the mood for making your own soft and elegant birthday card.

✂️ Supplies I Used:

Amazing Paper Grace Products Used:

S5-479 Daisy Delight Garden Shutters A2 Card Base

S5-475 Fluted Classics Rectangles

S4-1193 Layered Daisies

S4-1220 Summer Label Motif

Other Products Used:

House of Paper White Cardstock – 300 gsm

Spellbinders Colorwheel Cardstock – Seaside

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White – 110 Ib cardstock

Craft Perfect Mirror Cardstock – Honey Gold

Craft Perfect Vellum – Pure White

Altenew Stencil – Woven Stencil

Gina K Masking Magic Strips

Altenew Fresh Dye Inks – Iceberg, Eastern Sky, Jade, Matcha Tea

Ramger Archival ink – Sunflower

Pink Fresh Studio Iridescent Gems – Blue

Foam squares

Bearly Art Glue

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Patricia

A Handbag Style Pop-Up Diorama Birthday Card

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's CreationsLeave a comment

Kia ora Koutou

I was recently asked to do a birthday card for someone special who loved bears in a forest and purple chrysanthemums. I had an idea to do a diorama card that showed a bear in a forest surrounded by trees and woodland animals and I found this design for a handbag style diorama card on YouTube here that had been designed by Sam Calcott from Mixed Up Crafts. This fitted perfectly with what I was aiming to achieve although I did add some extra dimension and depth inside the diorama where I added some trees to create more of a forest feel and of course I had to add lots of sparkly flowers and butterflies and little creatures to further embellish the scene.

I have used a mix of mainly Amazing Paper Grace and Honey Bee Stamps dies to create this card and used a totally different colour scheme of kraft, teals and purples to what I would normally do but it came together very well. I purchased the bear and some of the woodland animals images from Etsy and they worked in well with the different flowers, trees, grass and animal dies to create the look of a forest.

Lots of shine and sparkle were added with glitter, clear sparkles, glitter paper and Stickles as this reflected on the recipient who is a lovely, bright and bubbly person and a joy to be around.

I know this card will always be treasured and I enjoyed putting all my love and energy into make this a very special birthday keepsake.

(Apologies for the photos – they were taken quickly and in poor light and it was really difficult to show how gorgeous this card really was.)

Products Used:

Amazing Paper Grace Postage Edge Rectangles Etched Dies

Amazing Paper Grace With Love Regalia Etched Dies

Amazing Paper Grace Make a Scene Celebration Etched Dies

Spellbinders Bunch of Borders Dies

Spellbinders 3D Embossing Folder – Tufted

Honey Bee Stamps: Lovely Layers – Mum Honey Cuts

Honey Bee Stamps: Lovely Layers – Trees Honey Cuts

Honey Bee Stamps: Lovely Layers – Spring Greenery Honey Cuts

Honey Bee Stamps: Lovely Layers – Dogwood Honey Cuts

Honey Bee Stamps: Lovely Layers – Bugs Honey Cuts

Honey Bee Stamps Celebrating You Stamp Set

Heartfelt Creations Floral Fashionista Dies

Spellbinders Essentials Cardstock – Teal Topaz

Concord & 9th Cardstock – Avocado, Artichoke, Aqua Sky, Ocean Side, Evergreen, Juniper, Peacock, Clover

Gina K Cardstock – Chocolate Truffle

Heartfelt Creations Kraft Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Glitter Paper – Ocean Blue

Distress Inks – Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Ancient Mariner, Peeled Paint

Pink Fresh Studio inks – Soft Lilac, Candy Violet

Memento ink – Tuxedo Black

Copic marker E47, YR27, 100 – small bird

CTMH Bitty Sparkles

Small pink flowers:

Ranger Archival inks – Magenta Hue, Candy Violet

Frosted Lace Stickles.

Go Green Prills

Butterfly – Copic Markers – V09.V05, V04, V01, Crystal Stickles

Clear sparkles from stash

DMC Sparkling Dust

Clear Gloss Gel Medium

Foam Tape

It was really hard to take photos of this card to do it justice and so I have made a short video to show you how it works here:

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Patricia

Amazing Paper Grace Congrats Fanfare Elegant Rectangles

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's CreationsLeave a comment

Kia ora Koutou

Welcome back for another Amazing Paper Grace post. Today I have gone back to my favourite style – ivory and gold classic and elegant card featuring the Amazing Paper Grace Die of the Month July 2020 Fanfare Elegant Rectangles Etched Dies. I so love the lacy and delicate dies that are perfect to add pretty handcrafted flowers made with the flower dies that came in the same set. This would be the perfect wedding card that will make a wonderful keepsake for the wedding album.

Dies were provided by Amazing Paper Grace for today’s creations.

My Project

For my card I have made a top folding 5″ x 7″ base card out of white cardstock. I then added some gold cardstock to the front and layered some ivory pearl card over it after scoring two lines on each side 1/8″ apart.

I die cut to outer decorative frames from the Amazing Paper Grace Die of the Month July 2020 Fanfare Elegant Rectangles Etched Dies – one from ivory pearl card and one from gold card. I trimmed the gold frame in half and added it behind the ivory frame and then adhered it to the front of the card.

I die cut 8 medallions from the same die set out of ivory pearl card and trimmed 6 of them in half. These motifs are designed to be trimmed and can be slotted on to edges for a decorative finish. I added four flourishes to each corner of the card and then added a lacy decorative edge to each side of the inner cut out and I then added the 6 lacy edges around the inner cut out and adhered the pretty lace edged inner cut out to the centre of the frame with foam tape.

I die cut an oval frame out of ivory pearl card using the small oval dies from the Amazing Paper Grace Fluted Classics Oval Etched Dies and added the frame to the centre of the inner panel with foam tape and the inner oval to the centre of the frame.

I die cut the leaves out of light green cardstock using the leaf dies from the Amazing Paper Grace Cinch and Go Flowers III Etched Dies and trimmed them to add to the top left and bottom right of the oval frames. I die cut small leaves from the Amazing Paper Grace Spring Label Motif Etched Dies out of gold glitter cardstock and added them around the green leaves.

I die cut the flowers from the Amazing Paper Grace Die of the Month July 2020 Fanfare Elegant Rectangles Etched Dies out of soft flower shaping paper. These were coloured with pink, yellow and blue inks, shaped and assembled with wire pollens. The wires were trimmed and the flowers were added over the tleaves.

I die cut the butterfly from the Amazing Paper Grace Summer Label Motif Etched Dies using the ivory pearl card and yellow pearl card with the body made from gold glitter cardstock. The butterfly was assembled and added to the bottom of the fluted classic frame.

I die cut four sentiments from the Amazing Paper Grace Die of the Month March 2020 Elegant Infinity Etched Dies – three from ivory pearl card and one from gold cardstock. These were stacked together with the gold die on top and then added to the centre of the oval fluted classic frame.

To complete the card I added pearls to the decorative frame and the corner motifs.

Amazing Paper Grace Dies Used:

Die of the Month July 2020 Fanfare Elegant Rectangles Etched Dies

Die of the Month March 2020 Elegant Infinity Etched Dies

Summer Label Motif Etched Dies

Spring Label Motif Etched Dies

Fluted Classics Oval Etched Dies

Cinch and Go Flowers III Etched Dies

Other Products Used:

Heartfelt Creations Luxe Gold Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Gold Glitter Paper

Crafter’s Companion Centura Pearl Cardstock – Yellow

DMC Soft Floral Shaping Paper

Spellbinders Essentials Cardstock – Peridot

Ivory Pearl Cardstock from stash

Pearls

White, Dark Yellow and Brown Wire Pollens

Pink Fresh Studio inks – Cherry Blossom, Sky Blue, Lemon Whip

Foam squares, strips

Scor-Pal Scoring Board

My Sweet Petunia Precision Glue Press

Bearly Art Glue

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Patricia

Wishing You All the Best

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's Creations2 Comments

Kia ora Koutou

Today I am sharing a second card that I created for the for the Pink Fresh Studio February 2024 Challenge which was to use the following Pink Fresh Studio inks Sparkling Rose, Sunkissed, Spruce Tips, and Paradise and gold or have some hearts in your project. This colour combination is just so beautiful and I will be using it again.

For my project I have created a top folding A2 sized card. I cut another piece of white card slightly smaller and lightly stenciled the background using Turquoise ink. This was then adhered to the card front.

I then die cut circles out and added them to the front of the stenciled image – I used two outer and one inner circle to create some dimension. I ink blended some Turquoise ink to one of the inner circles and then added it to the centre of the frame.

I stamped the Magnolias stamp using WOW embossing ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I then coloured the flowers and leaves using the challenge inks – Sunkissed, Sparkling Rose, Paradise and Spruce Tips. The images were die cut and layered around the circle as shown.

For the sentiment I hot foiled the sentiment in Matte Gold Foil and die cut it with the coordinating die. I die cut another two plain dies and stacked these together and adhered the sentiment to the right of the flowers using some foam tape.

I hot foiled the small butterflies with Matte Gold foil and then coloured the butterflies with the coordinating stencil using Sunkissed and Sparkling Rose inks. I then die cut the butterflies and added this butterfly to the circle above the sentiment.

To finish my card I added some gold pearls around the flowers to meet the challenge brief.

Products Used:

Pink Fresh Studio Magnolias Stamp, Die and Stencil

Pink Fresh Studio Small Butterflies Hot Foil Plate, Die and Stencil

Pink Fresh Studio Essentials Scallop Circles

Pink Fresh Studio Stained Glass Stencil

Pink Fresh Studio Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and Die

Pink Fresh Studio inks – Paradise, Spruce Tips, Sunkissed, Sparkling Rose, Turquoise

Pink Fresh Studio Gold Pearls

Pink Fresh Studio Blending Brushes

Wow Embossing Ink

Ranger Gold Embossing Powder

Spellinders Foil – Matte Gold

Heartfelt Creations Deluxe Flower Shaping Paper

Neenah Solar Crest 80 Ib

My Sweet Petunia Precision Glue Press

Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive

Foam tape/squares

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Patricia

Amazing Paper Grace Sympathy Card

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's CreationsLeave a comment

Kia ora Koutou

I would like to take the time to wish everyone a healthy, safe and prosperous Happy New Year with lots of time for crafting therapy.

Today it is New Years Day in New Zealand and I have a gorgeous lilac and silver card to share with you today. I really love how Becca Feeken and former Amazing Paper Grace Creative Team Member Rajni Chawla mix and match layering dies and also snip dies to create a totally different look. Here I have used three different die sets – Fluted Classics Rectangles Dies, Postage Edge Rectangles Dies and Scalloped Symphony Notecard Dies to create a very elegant base for the snipped Marvelous Medallion dies. The flowers are from the Marvelous Medallion dies and off course I had to add a sweet little butterfly. The sentiment is from Beccy’s Place Wren stamp set. (It wasn’t until after I completed the card that I realised that perhaps the sympathy sentiment was not a great choice for the start of the year but it suited the card and it is always handy to have spare sympathy cards on hand – what do you think?).

Dies were provided by Amazing Paper Grace for today’s creations.

My Project

For my project I have created a shaped card base using three large Postage Edge Rectangles Dies – two in white cardstock and one in silver. I adhered the two white rectangles together with the right sides out and then scored at 3/4″ along one of the short sides to create a hinge. This hinge was glued to the back of the silver rectangle. I then layered an ivory plain layer with the large rectangle from the Fluted Classics Rectangles Dies in lilac cardstock. I die cut the large scalloped edge slimline die from the Scalloped Symphony Notecard Dies out of silver cardstock. I cut this in half and trimmed about another inch of both sides before gluing the sides together to fit inside the lilac patterned rectangle. To finish the layers I added another plain layer of ivory card and the Fluted Classics Rectangles Dies in Lilac cardstock.

I die cut two medallions out – with the shadow from silver cardstock and the top decorative layer from Lilac cardstock. I then trimmed the outer edges and added them to the top and bottom of the inner rectangle as shown.

I die cut a small postage rectangle from the Postage Edge Rectangles Dies out of silver cardstock. I layered a plain layer of lilac cardstock on top. I stamped the sentiment from the Blue Wren stamp set from Beccy’s Place in Majestic Violet ink on ivory cardstock. I die cut this out using the smallest plain die from the Postage Edge Rectangles Dies and adhered it to the top of the lilac cardstock. This was then added to the front of the card to hide the edges of the medallion dies using foam tape.

I die cut the flowers using the soft flower shaping paper and coloured them in the centres with Grassy Knoll ink and the edges using Wisteria ink. I soaked these in water and then shaped them using a small ball stylus. For the larger flowers I have done two layers and for the smaller ones I have done a single layer. A small green wire pollen was inserted into the centres of the flowers.

I die cut the leaves from green cardstock and these were added to the top left of the sentiment.  I trimmed the wires from the flowers and then added the flowers over the leaves.

The butterfly from the Butterfly Bliss Garden Shutters Dies were made by using vellum coloured with Kitsch Flamingo and Shaded Lilac inks and then silver accents and a black body were added to complete the butterfly. The butterfly was then added to the bottom right of the sentiment.

To finish I added some silver pearls around the sentiment and to highlight the Marvelous Medallion dies.

I will have a full video tutorial on my YouTube channel shortly on how I have made this card and the flowers.

Amazing Paper Grace Products Used:

Die of the Month February 2022 Marvelous Medallion Dies

Fluted Classics Rectangles Dies

Postage Edge Rectangles Dies

Scalloped Symphony Notecard Dies

Butterfly Bliss Garden Shutter Dies

Other Products Used:

Heartfelt Creations Deluxe Flower Shaping Paper

Creative Expressions Pearl Card – Ivory

Spellbinders Essentials Cardstock – Onyx, Rainforest

Concord & 9th Cardstock – Lilac

Rajni Chawla’s Flavourite Vellum

Dress My Craft Soft Floral Paper

Dress My Craft Green Wire Pollens

Bearly Art Glue

Foam Tape

Pink Fresh Studio Silver Pearls

Pink Fresh Studio inks – Grassy Knoll, Wisteria

Distress Oxide inks – Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac

Ranger Archival ink – Majestic Violet

Small ball stylus

Please check out my video on my YouTube Channel here:

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Amazing Paper Grace Romantic Slimline Borders Birthday Card

On By patriciamanhireIn Patricia's Creations1 Comment

Kia ora koutou

I love lacy dies and these Amazing Paper Grace Romantic Slimline Borders Dies are just stunning to add some pretty edges and decorative backgrounds to add some flowers and a butterfly. These border dies can be used in so many ways and today I have done a 4 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ card. I had some flowers left over from a previous project so this card was so quick and easy to put together. You can see the other card card here and on that post there is a link to a video tutorial on how I have made these flowers on YouTube.

Dies were provided by Amazing Paper Grace for today’s creations.

My Project

To make my card I have created a top folding 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ base card out of white cardstock. I then cut a piece of white cardstock 4″ x 5 1/4″ and scored at 1/8″ intervals down the long side of the card and then adhered it to the front of the card.

I cut the following pieces of card:

Blue card – 4 1/2″ x 4″

White card – 3″ x 4″

Pink card – 2″ x 4″

I die cut each end of the blue card with the ‘broderie anglais’ edge and stitch edge dies, the white card with the scallop and stitched dies and the pink card with the lacy decorative edge dies. I then layered the pink strip to the white strip to the blue strip and adhered them to the front of the embossed layer on the front of the card.

I cut a strip of white card 7/8″ x 4″ and embossed a line at 1/8″ along each long side to add some interest to this panel. I then stamped the sentiment from the Amazing Paper Grace Lyrical Layers Floral Stamp Set in Jet Black ink to the right side of the strip. This was then added to the centre of the pink lacy edged strip.

The flowers were made using the Amazing Paper Grace Primrose Heart Facade Dies. I have ink blended pink and yellow inks on white cardstock before die cutting the flowers out and assembling them. I have also used the same flowers on another card that you can see here. The small sprays are from the Amazing Paper Grace October 2021 Die of the Month Flourished Fleurit Dies and have been die cut out of yellow and green cardstock. I added some gold pearls to the centres of the open flowers.

To finish the card I added a blue, white and gold butterfly from the Amazing Paper Grace Butterfly Bliss Garden Shutters Dies.

Amazing Paper Grace Products Used:

Romantic Slimline Borders Dies

Primrose Heart Facade Dies

October 2021 Die of the Month Flourished Fleurit Dies

Butterfly Bliss Garden Shutters Dies

Lyrical Layers Floral Stamp Set

Other Products Used:

Spellbinders Essentials Cardstock – Snowdrift, Rainforest, Glacier, Beeswax, Chamomile, OnyxBee

Concord & 9th Cardstock – Ballet Slippers

Heartfelt Creations Luxe Gold Cardstock

Ranger Archival ink – Ranger Black

Distress Oxide inks – Squeezed Lemonade, Kitsch Flamingo, Saltwater Taffy,

Bearly Art Glue

Scoreboard

Pink Fresh Studio Gold Pearls

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Patricia

White Butterfly on Paris Daisy_0002.jpg

On By patriciamanhireIn PhotographyLeave a comment

This is the first time I have managed to capture a butterfly. The weather has cooled considerably and the butterflies were slow and lethargic which helped a lot.
Patricia