Card for Grad - spread your wings and fly!

The focal point of this card was started while I sponged the colour onto the butterfly for the Ode to the Blue Morpho card pictured below. If you click on the coloured words in this paragraph you will go to the post about that card and see how the butterfly is brown when it's closed.

Just before I started sponging the butterfly for that card I had the idea that just maybe I could use the butterfly as a stencil while I was sponging it. So that's what I did.

I got a piece of whisper white card stock and laid the butterfly (which I had cut out using my Big Shot and one of the dies from the Butterfly thinlits dies) in the center of the piece of card stock.  I sponged one side of the butterfly with Tempting Turquoise. Then I turned the butterfly over and laid it out in the same spot and sponged that side with Baked Brown Sugar*. I actually turned it over a few time working on each side of the butterfly to get the look I wanted on the butterfly, making sure each time that I laid the butterfly out in the same spot so that I would get a nice stenciled look of the butterfly.

This is what it looked like when I was done. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I laid it aside knowing that I would do something with it eventually, and last night I had an idea.

I decided I wanted to piece to be 4 3/4 x 4 1/8. Using my Stampin' Trimmer, I scored, instead of cutting, where I wanted to trim it. Then I folded along those scored marks until it I could easily tear along them, giving it nice, soft edges.

Next I sponged more Tempting Turquoise and Baked Brown Sugar* to fill in the rest of the white that was showing around the edges.

I stamped the greetings using Memento and a stamp from the B.Y.O.P. stamp set. The stamp is actually one stamp but I masked off the bottom part of the stamp and inked only the top part to stamp the greeting and the top of the butterfly and then masked off the top part of the stamp and inked only the bottom part of the stamp to stamp the greeting at the bottom of the butterfly.

I cut a 5 x 4 1/8 piece of Baked Brown Sugar* card stock and adhered the finished piece onto it. Then I cut a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of Tempting Turquoise card stock and adhered both piece to it, before adhering the whole thing to a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 whisper white card base.

*Baked Brown Sugar was one of the 2012-2015 In Colours and is no longer available for purchase, but I think Soft Suede ink and Soft Suede Card stock could be used for a similar look.

Ode to the Blue Morpho

Butterfly closed

The Blue Morpho

So bright and beautiful

when you are in flight,

but when you stop to rest

you disappear from sight

That's my lame attempt at an ode to the Blue Morpho.  I wanted to title this post Ode to the Blue Morpho so I felt the post should include a poem. That's the best I could come up with in a couple of minutes.

This card was inspired by the beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly, which we learned about at one of our favourite places to visit in the summer - the Butterfly House at the Newfoundland Insectarium. If you are ever in the area, you must go visit.

When we were visiting there a couple of years ago we were fascinated by these beautiful blue butterflies that were fluttering all around, but when we tried to get a sight of one pitched it was like it just disappeared. One of the employees explained to us that this is because one side of the butterfly's wings has this beautiful blue colour, but on the other side it is a molted brown colour. You can only see the blue when the butterfly is flying, because when it pitches it closes up its wings, showing only the molted brown side of the wings.

When I was making the butterfly decoration/stands that I shared in yesterday's post, I had to fold in half the butterflies that I cut using my Big Shot and the Butterfly Thinlits Dies. I really liked the look of the butterflies folded in half and decided I wanted to incorporate a folded butterfly into a card.

When I was playing with that idea I thought about the Blue Morpho and decided to attempt to make a butterfly similar to the Blue Morpho, brown on the outside, and blue inside. I cut the butterfly out of whisper white cardstock, laid it flat on a paper towel and sponged one side of it with Baked Brown Sugar and then flipped it over and sponged the other side of it with Tempting Turquoise. Then I went along the edges of the butterfly with my Early Espresso Stampin' Write Marker and coloured the body of the butterfly on both sides with the same colour.

I folded the butterfly in half and adhered just one wing to the card front, allowing the other wing to flap freely.

Butterfly Open

I would put this card in an envelope with the butterfly closed and then allow the butterfly to flap open when the card is taken out of the envelope.

The patterned paper on the card front is actually a piece that I made a while back when I was making the Flowers and Butterflies for a Card Swap. You will find directions on how I made it on the blog post linked in this paragraph. I made one more card front than I needed at that time so I tucked the extra one away to use another time, and I thought it worked perfectly for this card. I simply adhered the piece to a whisper white card base.

Butterfly decorations and stands

I've been playing, and I'm thinking some of these elements may find their way onto cards on my blog sometime this week, but for now, check out those butterflies in the background. Here, I'll give you a closer look.

Isn't that pretty! I read on a forum somewhere this week how someone adhered three butterflies together, placed a circle on top, and used it to hold a cupcake! I had to try it out. I decided to use the swallow tail butterfly thinlit from the Butterfly Thinlits, and that probably wasn't the smartest because the tails are not that strong. I did cut a scalloped circle using the framelit from the Circles Collection framelits and just laid it on top and tried somethings on it, but it wouldn't hold much at all.

It does look cute though. I may try it again with the other butterfly framelit, as I'm thinking that one might hold more, or I may try cutting the tails off this one to see if it can hold more that way.

I decided to try it with four butterflies, instead of three, to see if that would make it a bit stronger, and I decided to use two different colours this time.

I place the scalloped circle on top of that too, but it still couldn't hold much. Looks cute though.

And the colours you see depend on the angle you look at it from.

I think these make cool decorations even if they can't hold anything. I may play with it some more yet. We'll see. I'd love to hear if you try it and see what you do with it.

Fluttering Butterflies Birthday Card

So, it didn't come out quite like I had it pictured it my head, but it's not too bad. Don't forget to check out the video at the bottom to see the butterflies flutter out of the card when you open it.

While browsing recently I came across the Floating Butterflies Video and I just had to try it. I didn't have some of the supplies she used in the video so I improvised.

I made a card base by scoring an 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 piece of Calypso Coral at 4 1/4.  I used my Big Shot and the 3 3/16 die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut a hole in the card front.

I used my Texture Boutique and the Lovely Lace embossing folder to give texture to the card front.

I used my Big Shot and the 3 5/8" die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut 2 circles out of a Window Sheet. I adhered one of this circles to the inside of the cut out circle shape in the card front.

The other window sheet circle I cut spirally.

I cut a 5 1/4 x 4 sheet of Best Year Ever DSP (a Sale-a-Bration item which is no longer available for purchase) and adhered it to the inside of the card base.

Sadly, I didn't take pictures of the rest of the process, so I just have to try to describe it to you.

I stamped a greeting inside using Baked Brown Sugar and one of the stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set.

I stamped the outside greeting on a 1 x 3 piece of whisper white cardstock using Coastal Cabana and one of the stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set. I made a mat for it out of a 1 1/4 x 3 1/4 piece of Crushed Curry. I rounded the corners of both pieces using the corner rounder on my Envelope Punch Board before adhering to two together then adhering them to the cardfront.

I put a glue dot, actually two glue dots, on the outside end of the spiral and adhered it to the outside edge of the back of the front of the card. Sounds confusing.  I had to stop typing and go take a picture of the finished card to show you what I mean.

Then I lay the spiral flat on the card front and put a glue dot right in the center of it before closing the card so that the center stuck to the patterned paper inside the card.  I wish I had taken a picture to show you, and it kind of hard to see it with the card all put together. If you watch the video I linked above you will understand.

I used my Big Shot and the smallest butterfly die from the Butterfly Thinlits to cut butterflies out of the Best Year Ever DSP.

I used glue dots to adhere the butterflies at different points along the spiral cut window sheet that was adhered to the card. When you open the card, the butterflies appear to fly.

I adhered one of the butterflies to the front of the card.

Here's a video showing how it looks opening up.

It's late...

...and I'm only just now starting to play. I have an idea in my mind, but who knows how it will turn out. Stay tuned!

Black & White Butterfly Birthday

I told you there'd be more black and white cards. This one is pretty simple, but I like it.

I cut the shapes out of Black cardstock using dies from the Butterflies Thinlits, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, and Secret Garden Framelits.

The cardbase was made by scoring an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of white cardstock at 4 1/4. 

The black frame is a 4" square with a 2" opening. The white frame is a 3 3/4" square with a 2 1/8" opening. These were cut using my Stampin' Trimmer.

The greeting was stamped with Memento using a stamp from Butterflies Basics.

Dimensionals were used to pop the white frame on top of the black and to adhere the butterfly. Everything else was adhered with the 2-way glue pen.

The final touch was the Rhinestones.

Card Inspired by a Shirt

I grabbed a few minutes today before cooking supper to make this card, copying the design on this shirt belonging to my granddaugther.

Yesterday, well late last night (in a post titled No Finished Product, But Inspired by a Shirt Design) I shared how I used my Big Shot and Butterflies Thinlits Dies to make stencils and experimented with filling in the stencils with different stamps. I still haven't used the materials I shared in that post on cards yet, but I got to thinking that just maybe the stamps in the Butterfly Basics stamp set would work, so I experimented. They worked! Here's some of the experimenting I did. 

I used stamps from the Butterfly Basics stamp set for three of the butterflies on the card.

Oops! Looks like I forgot to take a picture after I stamped the butterfly with Pumpkin Pie and the honeycomb stamp from the Basic Butterflies stamp set. It's probably because I was frustrated because I had made a smear on the card with the blue. I'll tell you more about that in a bit. 

For the last butterfly I decided to sponge the ink in the stencil for the last butterfly, to mimic the full coloured butterfly on the shirt.

Next I stamped the greeting.

Okay, back to the smear.  Notice how the stamp pads are placed strategically in the same spot in each of the photos after I stamped with the blue? That's to cover up the lovely smear of blue ink I somehow managed to place there. I was so frustrated with myself! And I even had another little smear of blue where I stamped the greeting. I was tempted to throw the card out, but then I had an idea! 

I decided to make the smear part of the design of the card. I dabbed a corner of a clear block in each of the colours and then touched them to the edges all around the card. Then I dabbed my finger on each of the colours and touched my finger lightly to the card here and there. 

I have to say, I think it added to the card. It was kind of plain before I did that. I'm still thinking it needs a little something so I may add something to it yet.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

No Finished Product, but Inspired by a Shirt Design

Yesterday I was inspired by a shirt my little granddaughter was wearing. Here's a picture of it -

Isn't it cute? I decided to try to make some similar butterflies with my stamping supplies.

I used my Big Shot, some copy paper, and my Butterflies Thinlits Dies to make stencils.

I adhered the stencil I wanted to use to a piece of cardstock. I used sticky tack to adhere it.

In the picture below I am using a stamp from the All Shook Up Paper Pumpkin Kit to fill in the stencil. The picture at the top of this post shows the end result when the stencil was removed. I think it turned out pretty good. What do you think?

As you can see in the picture above, I had tried a different colour ink and a different stamp earlier.  Here's how that turned out.

I wasn't crazy about the end result in this one. I thought a more uniform stamp would work better, so that's when I tried the stamp above. I liked how it turned out in the top one better than this one.

Then I tried it again with a stamp from the Layers of Gratitude Paper Pumpkin kit. 

I think this one turned out pretty good too, but my favourite so far is the one at the top of this post.

I have more ideas for playing with this idea yet, but no time to play. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm able to complete a project from this inspiration.

For now, I'm still pouring over the 2015-2016 Annual Stampin' Up! Catalogue, which will go live June 2. Tomorrow, however, Stampin' Up! demonstrators can place a preorder. I'm making my list and checking it twice.  :-) I'm really hoping to get my hands on some of the great stuff a.s.a.p.

A little addition

The above card is is a slightly upgraded card of the below card.

Can you spot the difference? (aside from the obvious colour difference, of course)

I added some little Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments to the yellow card to give it a little extra punch. What do you think?

I may do more of these, with and without the pearls, in different colours and with different sentiments. They are so fast and easy to do!

If I get six people interested, I'll even do a class. Let me know if you're interested.

To learn more about the inspiration for this card check out my I Simply Love a Simple Card post.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I Simply Love a Simple Card!

This card was inspired by the beautiful, but simple, cards on Jennifer Talley's Meet the New In Colors blog post. I loved the cards in that post and had to C.A.S.E. them. I searched through my stamps for ones similar to the ones she used.

The card above is stamped with Rich Razzleberry using stamps from Butterfly Basics and Nature's Perfection (a stamp set that is no longer available). The butterfly was cut using the Big Shot and one of the Butterfly Thinlits Dies. While I used the Big Shot and die to cut out the butterfly, it could very easily be cut out with just scissors.

This card was stamped with Tempting Turquiose using stamps from Butterfly Basics and Thoughts & Prayers stamp sets, both of which are still available for purchase.

These are two of my favourite stamp sets at the moment. They are so versatile. With these two stamp sets you have stamps to cover birthdays, get well soon, sympathy, general thinking of you, and general wishes. And the images with them are beautiful. They have greetings that can be used both outside and inside the card. With white card stock, one ink colour, and either of these stamp sets you can make a lot of great cards. 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Watercolour Ways to Use It Challenge: Part Two - Embossing Folder Stamping

The Ways To Use It challenge this past Thursday at SplitcoastStampers was to use a watercoloured background and the challenge contained links to a number of different technique tutorials and I just had to try a couple.Yesterday's post is about my attempt to try one of these tutorials. Today's post is about another one.

The Embossing Folder Stamping Watercolour Technique is so easy, and fun! I used the Lovely Lace embossing folder and using my Stamping Sponges I sponged on some Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Tangelo Twist, and Hello Honey.

When the colours were all on, I misted it with water using the Stampin' Spritzer.

 

Then I pressed the cardstock down onto the embossing folder.

And Voila! this is how it turned out - 

I left it to dry before moving it, but looking back now I think I probably should have soaked up the excess water with a paper towel because it pooled in a couple of places and looked a little wonky, but I managed to cover that with the design of the card when I put it together.

Using my Big Shot and one of the Butterfly Thinlits I cut a butterfly out of Wild Wasabi cardstock. I stamped the greeting with Wild Wasabi using one of the stamps in the Butterfly Basics stamp set and I also sponged the edges of the watercolour paper with Wild Wasabi. I adhered the finished piece to a Hello Honey card base.