PRESENT FOR MY FRIEND

I made this yesterday for a friend's 50th birthday. It's 6 x 6" and goes in one of those deep box frames. I've photographed it out of the frame because of reflections on the glass. She said she didn't want any birthday presents because she doesn't need anything, but I wanted to make her something to tell her that I value our friendship. We met when we were both suffering from deep depression and helped each other through a bad time, which has made a lasting bond between us even though we no longer meet very often since I moved.

She tends to like "cute" pretty stuff and I don't, so I've tried to make it more her style than mine ... not an easy challenge! I just can't do cute bears or whatever .... it isn't ME.

Anyway, despite it being quite "pretty" I do like how it has turned out. The background is a Basic Grey paper and the pewter butterfly sticker is by Magenta - I bought it in a sale ages ago, one of those "it's bound to come in for something" buys! The friendship quote is mounted onto blue card to make it stand out, and then I stamped the (Autumn Leaves) swirls around it.

Then I stamped the larger butterflies onto watercolour paper and painted them, then mounted them quite high on two foam pads to take advantage of the deep frame and make it more 3D, although the photo doesn't show this very well. It still looked just a little bare, so I added another stamped small butterfly, which seemed to finish it off nicely. I think she'll like it.