Double But Different Part 1

I've just made two birthday cards for my husband's twin nieces birthday (they're grown up not kids) and since the two of them are so different, I've made very different cards. This is the card I made first for Jess.

Materials:
Cardstock: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Specialty DSP (retired I guess, it was in the summer mini catalogue).
Ink: Early Espresso, Baja Breeze.
Stamps: Butterfly Prints, Teeny Tiny Sentiments.
Other: Sponge, Modern label punch, Basic Pearls, Victoria lace (also from the summer mini), dimensionals, mini glue dots, Butterfly punch.
Non Stampin' Up: Nothing, woohoo!

Tips and Tricks:
1. I used caution when sponging the specialty DSP which means use ink sparingly. I lightly inked my piece of sponge then dabbed it onto scrap paper a few times before using it. I started at the edges and in circular motions I applied and buffed the ink onto the paper. It took a while to do. When finished, I used a clean sponge to buff over the whole image which removed any excess ink from the embossing and made it pop!
2. I adhered the butterflies with mini glue dots.
3. The sentiment label is sponged in Early expresso around the edges and lightly sponged on the face with Baja Breeze. I did this to dull the brightness of the bare Very Vanilla cardstock. It's popped up on dimensionals so it doesn't interfere with the lace.
4. I used all 3 sizes of basic pearls on the sentiment punch, starting on the outside with the largest. I cut a pearl strip into smaller segments of 2 for the butterflies bodies.

Stuff Ups:
1. I wasn't carefully enough in measuring my DSP so I had to trim it after the sponging and lost some of the great edge effect I got from the sponging process. I responged the cut edge but it's not quite the same.
2. The 'happy birthday' sentiment is a little off centre but I can live with it.

Anya, Flowers and Butterflies

This card was made for my niece and I wanted it to be a little bit girly without being over the top with pink and purple. I turned again to my beloved top note die but changed from my normal landscape style to a portrait style of card. The camera doesn't do justice to the glitter and rhinestones though:

Materials:
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper white (just a little bit), watercolour paper.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Marina Mist, Versamark, Rose Red, Sahara Sand marker.
Stamps: Curly Cute, Butterfly Prints.
Other: Top Note die, Big Shot machine, Rhinestone accents, Corner punch, dimensionals.
Non Stampin' Up: Fleur Anya stamp, clear embossing powder, black embossing powder, Sizzix Spring Flowers textured impressions embossing folder, silver glitter letter stickers by Papercraft, aquapainter.

Tips and Tricks:
1. The Fleur Anya is stamped on watercolour paper in Versamark and then heat embossed with black embossing powder.
2. Anya is coloured with water and ink using an aquapainter. The colours are added at different intensities to get the shading. Basically her skin is Pink Pirouette ink with a hint of rose red on her cheeks. Anya's dress and flowers are Marina Mist. The flower centres are Rose Red with a rhinestone in the middle of each. Anya's hair is Chocolate Chip ink.
3. It's difficult to see clearly but the Chocolate Chip layer has butterflies stamped on it in Versamark and they have been heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
4. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment has been stamped in Versamark then Marina Mist ink and finally heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
5. Rhinestones of various sizes are placed on the Happy Birthday sentiment, Anya's flowers and the pink top note die cut.
6. Tiani's name and the flower next to her name are silver glitter stickers which are really sparkly. The camera doesn't show it in this picture, but if you click on the image to make it larger you can see the sparkles!

Stuff Ups:
1. When aquapainting Anya, some of the ink leaked past the black embossed border so I use a Sahara Sand marker to trace around Anya, making the ink less noticeable.