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

Birthday Butterfly for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  I'm back with my card for the latest challenge at the Paper Players.  This week, the amazing Joanne is hosting our Clean and Simple challenge with a theme of things that fly. Keeping your card CAS just means lots of empty or "white" space, minimal layers and minimal embellishments.

Paper Players

I had one thing in mind for this challenge but ended up with something else entirely.  Does that every happen to you?  Even so, I like how my card turned out.

Not a unique choice, but I decided to use a butterfly for this challenge.  The wings were die cut from Bristol paper, the ink blended with a trio of yellow to orange inks, then added the body and the rest of the wings. 

I used a cover die for the background to give it some subtle texture and design, then layered on the new SSS Petal-Tipped Labels die cuts for the butterfly's landing place.  The sentiment was popped up on some thin foam tape and I finished things off by using a shimmer pen on all the black parts of the butterfly.

What comes to your mind when thinking of things that fly?  Birds, planes, fairies, butterflies?  For more inspiration, I encourage you to pop over to the challenge, where my talented teammates have some fabulous cards to share!  The challenge ends Friday, May 23rd at 3pm EDT.  Hope to see you there!

Stef

• SSS Exquisite Butterfly dies
• SSS Petal-Tipped Labels die
• Pinkfresh Studio Tulip Love Cover Plate
• Spellbinders Fancy Sentiments Betterpress plate and die
• Altenew Chamomile, Snapdragon and Terracotta inks
• Tonic Aqua Shimmer pen

Just a Note for Color Hues

Hello friends!  It's mid-month and time for another fabulous challenge at Color Hues!  This time the talented Tracey has chosen the colors Cyan and Lime Green.  Love this color combo!

Color Hues

Since I wanted to get the hue closest to cyan, I did a google search and found it is a greenish blue rather than a blue green, so I found what I felt was the closed ink color in my collection, one more on the blue than blue green side.  But quite honestly, I think anything in the green blue/aqua family would work for our challenge, so don't be intimidated by that.

I had been searching through my butterfly dies last month for one to use for a different challenge and realized I had this beautiful Birch Press Design Butterfly Basics die set that I'd purchased 18 months ago and never used.  So this seemed like the perfect opportunity.   I used the simplest combination of dies, cutting the base from white cardstock and the top detail piece from Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum.  I blended Altenew Sea Breeze and Tide Blue on the base, concentrating the darker color in the middle, fading out to a very light blue.  The vellum piece was then glued on just in the middle, which was hidden under two of Lucy's Cards Silver Pearls.

Next a panel of white cardstock was ink blended with Altenew Bamboo and Parrot inks, this time blending the darker color on the outside and the lighter towards to middle.  While the ink dried, I die cut the Birch Press Epiphany Plate Layers A & B from white cardstock.  The dies cut the outer portion as well as two inner circle pieces.  I layered the two larger pieces on the lime panel, then added just one of the inner circles from Plate A, then adhered the butterfly in the middle with glue at the center, one layer of foam on the lower part of the wing and a double layer of foam under the upper part of the wing.  The Memory Box Just a Note Posh Script dies were cut from matte silver and white, adhered together then glued directly to the card.  The last touch was to add a few more silver pearls to pull the design together.  I love these colors and how this all came together!

I hope you're equally inspired by these colors and decide to play along with us - you have until 9 am EST on 2/28.  In the meantime, be sure to use the link above and check out the fantastic cards by the other DT members.

Thanks for stopping by - take care!

Stef

Butterfly Birthday

Hi there, I hope you're having a wonderful day!  I have a card to share with you that I made for the challenges at Seize the Birthday and As You See It.

STB #253

As You See It #290

As it turned out, almost all of my card components were left unused from other projects.  Always a bonus and makes creating a bit quicker.

I love Jane's sketch for As You See It, but it worked best for my card to flip it to the side.  I started by die cutting the Memory Box Drifting Side Butterfly from Simon Says Stamp Matte Silver and white cardstock, then adhering the pieces together just along the bottom so the silver outline could be lifted slightly on the left edge.  I thought it would look pretty on floral embossing and found the Concord and 9th Honeysuckle embossed panel from my stash already embossed with Altenew's Beautiful Bergenia 3D folder.  I took my white pigment inkpad and lightly brushed it across the panel to highlight the raised edges and after the ink dried, trimmed it down about a half inch on one side.

The panel was adhered to a white card base, then I added a skinny strip of Matte Silver and a strip of embossed white to cover the remainder of the card front.  I pulled the SSS Happy Birthday from my die storage and found the one used on the card already completed and tucked in with the dies.  Sweet!  I adhered it onto the card front then added the butterfy and my card was complete!  

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.  Take care and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Stef