Butterfly Dreams

Today's card is full of sparkle and whimsy. I combined an abstract background with a beautiful, realistic butterfly and a playful sentiment. I added sparkle to the background, butterfly, and shine to the sentiment. The butterfly is a symbol of change hope which fits Dream Big!

I started by inking this background stamp by Hero Arts called Abstract Butterfly Wing. I used Wilted Violet, Villainous Potion, Mermaid Lagoon, and Peacock Feathers Distress inks. All are cool colors on the color wheel and work well together. Pro Tip: use a blending brush the soften the transitions between colors to avoid harsh edges.

This is the resulting panel. I tried inking a background first, but it didn't look right. So, I added a couple of spritzes of water before stamping to give a watercolor look.

For the butterly, I used Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Butterfly stamp set. As you can see, the layers line up easily. It would have been simple to stamp with an acrylic block, but I used my MISTI since I was making multiples.

This is the final butterfly. I know this is a Monarch set, but the great thing about art is there are no limitations on color or design.

I fussy cut a total of three butterflies to stack together to add dimension and stability. I didn't use the coordination dies because I wanted to have the image cut right up to the edge. I hate fussy cutting, but my Scan N Cut kept cutting off the antennae. Pro Tip: to make the butterfly stand out on an already busy background, I ran a Memento marker around the edges to get rid of any white. Also, if you haven't fussy cut perfectly, the black ink hides that.

I added black foam dots to the back of the butterfly, avoiding the midline so I could glue that down. Pro Tip: double up foam squares on tips of wings to give added dimension and look of m

Comments

Friday April 23, 2021

Springtime Slimline It's finally spring and the flowers are starting to bloom outside and in my craft room! Today, I made this spring-themed birthday card for my niece. I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire. She made a video two years ago who where she made a card similar to this. If you don't know who she is, her channel is a must watch! These floral framed tiles look like stained glass. Like my post a week ago, I used Distress Oxides to get the watercolor effect of their backgrounds. Products needed for this card are Distress Oxides or other water-reactive ink, blending brushes or other blending tool, a slimline card base, pieces of white cardstock, a piece of halographic cardstock, square frame dies (I used these from Pinkfresh Studios), and a sentiment die (I used a border die from Lawn Fawn). I started by randomlly ink blending with green and blue oxides. By blending ink first, the completed look is more striking. If you want a more subtle background,...

Decorations-1

Hello, and welcome to my blog. For today's post, I am once again a guest designer for Christmas Craft Creations. This month's theme is decorations. One of the first things I put up for Christmas is our stockings, so I had to create a card with a stocking. I used Spellbinders Stocking Full of Joy die set. I didn't have a red cardstock the color I wanted. Something I do often is adding ink direct to paper. This is basically creating your own colored cardstock. I used Altenew's Crisp Dye Ink in Vineyard Berry, then die cut the stocking. I used Aged Mahogany Distress Ink to add shadows. I cut the top of the stocking and loop from Simon Says Stamp Matte Gold Cardstock. I used different shades of green to make the foliage appear more organic. The red berries are cut from the first inked paper. For the white berries, I again went direct to paper with Antique Linen Distress Ink. Once the items are finished and ready ...

Add A Hat-2

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I made this cute penguin card for Christmas Craft Creations. This month's theme is Hats On. I love the warm hats that these penguins are wearing. I'll walk you step-by-step through this card. I started with Lawn Fawn's Here We Go A-Waddling stamp set. I stamped out the trio of carolers, the guitar player, and the lamppost. I colored the images with Copic markers: C9, C6, C3, C2, BG09, BG18, RV69, R29, R20, V17, V15, G46, G28, Y26, YR24, E59, E39, B000, Y17, Y15, and YR 18. I cut two snow banks out of Neenah Classic Crest Cover Solar White 80lb cardstock with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside Borders. I then used Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxides to ink the edges of the banks. Pro tip: use a light color, e.g. blue or grey, to line the edges of a white image to give it more depth. I took an A2 panel in landscape position and inked the top 3/4 with Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide. Then, using the new Ra...

Coast2CoastCards

Search This Blog