Butterfly Birthday

Hello friends!  Today's card is using a die set I've had for many months and decided to bring it out of the NBUS pile and give it some use.  As I was finishing it up, I saw that it would work perfectly for the current Toppings at Seize the Birthday, which is Anything with Wings.

 STB #321

NBUS #84

I didn't quite realize how detailed the dies were until I started cutting them out.  There are some teeny tiny bits to keep track of if one wishes to inlay, which is what I intended.

The butterfly wings were die cut out of white plus four colors of card stock.  Thank goodness for little trays to keep all the bits contained lol! There is no backer die for the inlay, so after watching Sandi McIver on YouTube here, I used her hack of applying good old Scotch Tape to the back of the wings and then inlay all the parts. Sure, it's rather fiddly and initially I felt a bit overwhelmed, but after I decided on where each color would go, it was almost meditative.  Assembly of the butterfly was a piece of cake after that.

Due to the size of the butterfly, the card base is A7.  I settled on a large embossing folder with a leaf background.  I used Altenew's Dew Drops Crisp Dye ink, the closest match to the aqua cardstocks used for the die cuts, and used the ink pad directly on the flat side of the folder and ran through the die cut machine.  I did this about 3-4 times.  After adding it to the base, the butterfly and sentiment were popped up with foam tape.  I finished things off with a bit of sparkle by adding a few opal gems.

Thanks for taking time to visit! I'll be back tomorrow and Sunday with new posts; stop by if you have a moment.  Take care and have a great weekend.

Stef

• Alex Syberia Butterfly Bliss Die Set
• Altenew Essential Sentiment Strips die
• Spellbinders Leafy ef
• Simon Says Stamp Opal Dazzling Gems
• Spellbinders cardstock in Coral, Sicily, Seaside and Waterfall

Hello for The Flower Challenge

Hello friends!  I'm back with my reminder post for The Flower Challenge.  This month the theme is to use spring colors.

The Flower Challenge

At the first of the month I used purple and green here so this time I went with more peachy/orange colors.  

I started by coloring the flowers with Copic markers and the leaves with Olo markers.  I was trying to achieve a peachy color for the flowers but in the end it appears to lean more toward orange, and I was fine with that.  After die cutting, I used a black glaze pen to color in the stamen.

For the background I used the SSS Whirl Diamond Plate in white on a piece of Spellbinders Bellini cardstock, which I though complimented the color of the flowers without competing with it.  I placed the floral image up a little higher on the panel than I wanted, so I found a large die cut hello that helped balance things out.  Black enamel dots finished things off.

Can you believe it's mid-April already?  Time flies, that's for sure, but if you haven't joined us yet this month, or you have another floral with spring colors, there's still time to share.  The challenge will be open until Friday, April 25th. Please take a moment to visit the challenge blog, my amazing teammates have some more inspiration for you.  

Thanks for visiting and take care!

Stef

PS - come on back tomorrow when I'll be sharing my DT card for our new Color Hues challenge!

• Simon Says Stamp/Alex Syberia Close at Heart stamp and die (Stamptember 2024)
• SSS Whirl Diamond Plate
• Altenew Timeless Sentiment dies
• Altenew Essential Black Enamel Dots
• Sakura Black Glaze pen
• Copics - YR68, 02, 00
• Olos - YG 1.6, 1.4, 1.2

Just A Note for The Flower Challenge

Hello, my friends!  The middle of the month harkens our reminder post for The Flower Challenge!  This month we are focusing on the background.

The Flower Challenge

And since I'm using a stencil for my card background, I'm playing along with the Anything Goes stencil challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

HLS April Stencil Challenge

I was pleased that my order from Honey Bee Stamps arrived just prior to my card making session for my reminder card, so I was able to use the beautiful Folk Art Daisy Stencils.

I started by stenciling the five layers on a panel of white Hammermill, using a number of Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated inks (listed below), adding darker shades at the leaf and petal bases, then I used the lightest shade of purple to ink blend around the entire edge of the panel.  I saw this design with the die cut frame in a video by Nina-Marie Trapani here and thought it was a wonderful way to add interest to the panel.  

I used the larger of the two rectangle dies to cut out the panel, then used the smaller to create the frame.  The outer portion was then adhered directly to an A2 card base, then the frame added with foam tape and the interior adhered flat in the middle.  I wanted the die cut sentiment (from Memory Box) to match the colors in the card, so I used the Amethyst ink pad directly on a scrap of white paper, dried it completely with my heat tool, then die cut the sentiment from it and two additional layers of white.  They were glued together, adhered to the vellum shadow, then added to the card front along with two vellum sprigs die cut from the Alex Syberia Designs Classic Foliage die set.  I tried adding some bling but they were lost against the busy pattern, so I opted not to and called it done!

I do hope you'll join us this month! The challenge is open until the 25th of the month and be sure to stop by the blog (linked above) for some amazing inspiration by the endlessly talented design team!

Take care!  

Stef

SSS ink pad colors:  Lilac, Orchid, Amethyst, Lemonade, Sunbeam, Citrine, Spring, Dublin, Lucky and Mocha.

Special in Every Way for The Flower Challenge

Hello friends!  I'm back with my reminder card for The Flower Challenge.  This month the theme is die cuts and/or stencils with flowers as the primary images and the challenge is open until Saturday 3/25.

The Flower Challenge

My card today uses a floral stamp from a new-to-me company - Alex Syberia Designs.  I was familiar with her from the past as a designer and illustrator, plus I believe she sold digital images, but now she has her own line of stamps and dies, and they do not disappoint!  All products on my card are from this company.

This stamp set is called Life is Good and the sentiment is also from the same set.  As usual, I stamped and colored the image with Copic and Sketchmarker Brush Pro markers.  I was really in the mood for some vibrant colors when I sat down to make this card, so I used some different marker combos to brighten things up.  When the coloring was complete, the image was die cut with the coordinating die.  The sentiment was white heat embossed on black and also die cut with a coordinating die.

Next - more die cutting.  I used the Classic Foliage die set to cut out leafy branches from Lawn Fawn Pearlescent vellum. Next, a panel of white was die cut with the Modern Stripes Cover die, then adhered to the white card base.  The foliage was arranged to stick out from behind the main floral image, then everything was adhered directly to the card front.  Lastly the sentiment was added with some thin foam squares.

I think most of us do have stencils and/or dies, so I do hope to see your card in the gallery!  In the meantime, the link above will take you to the reminder post so you can see the absolutely gorgeous card by my talented teammates!

Thanks for visiting and take care!

Stef

Copics:  YG67, 09, 05, 01, YR24, 23, Y08, 04, 02, BG15, 23, 10, RV69, 00

Sketchmarker Brush Pro markers:  V111, 114