Butterfly Moments

Yet another card created with "buried treasure." I've had this butterfly set from Artistic Outpost for longer than I want to admit, and it finally met up with some ink... The card layout is from 2 Sketches 4 You.

I stamped the sentiment onto white cardstock, then did a simple wash over it with twinkling H2Os - love the effect! I framed it out with black (Martha Stewart border punch along the bottom), and accented it with a popped butterfly. I repeatedly stamped a strip of white with the same butterfly, and then layered it all with this orangey pink cardstock. Beauteous!

Blissful!

The smARTworks design team is sent a "challenge" set every other month. It's always fun to open that envelope - sometimes I have ideas forming immediately, and sometimes the sets are truly, well, challenging as I'm forced to use something I wouldn't normally be drawn to. This time around, I was thrilled the Bliss set, which includes this large butterfly and a simple phrase. I had a number of ideas, but chose to do some paper piecing. For starters, I knew I wanted to use more than one b-fly, so decided to make a 5x7 card to give myself more working room. I started by stamping the b-fly onto white cardstock 3 times - my placement was now set, and I didn't have to worry about trimming the antennae (a tip I picked up from Dina at some point). I then stamped it onto three different papers from Memory Box - I chose subtle prints as I didn't want to detract from the detailed veining of the image itself. I cut the butterflies out; I knew which print I wanted where, so I didn't have to cut out the entire image, but I did make sure to trim a bit extra for the edges. I matted the white panel with black, then adhered the butterflies and trimmed them flush with the black layer. After mounting it on the card base, I then added the sentiment, which was stamped onto a 4th coordinating paper. I trimmed it into a banner type shape, and mounted it with a few "waves" for added dimension. Blissful! :)

Susan is offering up one of these sets - head over for your chance to win! And you can see what each of the other cookies made with this set here.

Butterfly Faith

A dear friend of ours is having surgery today, and I knew I needed to get a card in the mail to her. But true to my put-it-off-until-the-last-minute nature, I hadn't actually made the card. Well, Mercy's Tuesday sketch to the rescue to jump start my creativity!

I ended up pulling out an old SU set (Nature's Secret) and pairing it with BasicGrey Phoebe paper. Our friend is fighting breast cancer, so the pinks in this paper seemed appropriate. I did deviate from the sketch just a bit, altering it to fit a standard notecard (I didn't want to worry about extra postage). I'm happy with the results, and I know it will be an encouragement to our friend, too.

Butterflies...

Another card made using the glimmer screens - this is the original I was working with (and then I flipped the screens over to use on the card I posted yesterday - you'll notice the colors are a bit more subdued with the second impression as they'd already started to dry a bit). Anyhoo, this is white cardstock sprayed with denim blue & latte glimmer mists. I then overstamped it with the butterfly image (Soar) and the sentiment (Butterflies), then added a couple dew drops for a bit of dimension. The colors are a bit more subdued than usual, but I find them quite soothing. If only I hadn't used such a "girly" image, it would make a great guy card! Oh well, next time :)

Happy Butterflies

I love techniques, and subscribe to the Technique Junkies newsletter. I hadn't played much lately, but was really impressed with the samples I'd seen using Reinker splash, so last night I pulled out Palette metallic inks (luscious lilac and satin sage). Very cool results - this card uses the 2nd generation pressing (and it's on matte cardstock) - yes, you'll be seeing something made with the original pressing soon :) I stamped the butterfly (End/Begin), then trimmed and matted the panel. I used Combo Sentiments to add the greeting, using the metallic ink on "happy." I tied on some ribbon and popped the sentiment panel up on foam dots just to add some interest.

This shot captures a bit of the shimmer. I just love sparkley stuff (but you may have already guessed that :) and I just wish that I could capture it better in the photos.

BTW, if you're not a TJ subscriber but are interested, you can get a 2008 online subscription for only $9.95. These are step by step photographed instructions, so they're very easy to follow. There's more info on this over at Pat's blog (the creator/publisher of the newsletter). Check it out!

If nothing ever changed...

...there would be no butterflies.

Great sentiment, isn't it? I managed to stamp quite a bit yesterday, so have lots to share over the next few days.

I love the way this card came together - simple layout, clean lines and sophisticated colors (at least that's how they seem to me, LOL!) I started by stamping the script (Vert Love Comes, but only partialy inked) onto the white square, then the butterfly over that (End/Begin). I stamped the sentiment (Butterflies) onto caramel cardstock, then pierced a straight line underneath just to add some interest. I mounted that onto a dark brown card base, then tried to decide what I wanted to do with the butterfly panel. I finally settled on matting it with red, which gave it a nice pop.

Back with more tomorrow! :)

Butterfly Beginnings

I had wanted to do this week's sketch on SCS, and made some time this afternoon. The images are from smARTworks End/Begin. Isn't that a great quote? I chose a couple sheets from my 6x6 pad of BasicGrey infuse, and pulled a few of those colors to finish off the butterfly. I don't think you'd find anything like that in nature, but let's just chalk that up to artistic license, shall we? :)

I stamped the butterfly onto the layers of the card itself, so the feet and antenna were all there when I layered on the colorized version (I believe I picked that tip up from Dini!) I also outlined the butterfly's wings with a black spica glitter pen, so there's just a hint of shimmer.

(Finished card measures 5 1/2" square)

Have a great weekend!!