Asymmetrical things are not usually my thing, actually they are the opposite of my thing! So this week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches really has been a challenge, I decided to pair it with another challenge, this one from Colour Q. The colour challenge provided a different sort of challenge, I don't have any Poppy Parade left in my stash - not to be put off by that I decided to substitute Real Red instead.
Isn't it great that we now have three different sized flower stamp sets and matching punches? I have used all three on this card because they go so well together, and layer beautifully. I wasn't initially sure of the colour combination, but I like the bright feeling it gives this card. It is a bit hard to see, but I have curled each of the flower's petals with my bone folder to add some dimension to the card.
Sunny Challenges Blog has a sketch challenge this week, there were a few new toys I wanted to use making my card to play along.
There are some new, roll over and retired products on this card, such a shame they are not all current products, but I am sure I will find alternatives. New products include the Raspberry Ripple card stock, Daydream Medallions stamps and matching Floral Frames Framelits and Itty Bitty Framelits. I used Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine because in such small amounts it matches the Raspberry Ripple well enough. I framed the Itty Bitty Banners using the Word Window punch with the ends snipped off - I was really happy to see how well it fit the little banner.
I have arranged to have the remainder of the week off work, and have a new box of Stampin' Up! toys due to arrive any day now, so I am hoping to get some serious creating done over the next week.
Just Add Ink have a colour challenge this week, Black and White and artist's choice for a third colour, for me Real Red was the colour I chose as I just think it really pops against the black and white.
I have seen a few of these triple layered cards lately and knew it was perfect for this colour combo. Dawn at Do Stamping With Dawn has a great video, if you want to give it a go yourself.
I am getting 'better' at decorating the inside of cards, and with the base of this card being Basic Black I thought it would be good to add an inside layer. Again I have used Petite Pairs on the front and on the inside of the card.
Today I want to show you the second card I made for my daughter's weekend of birthday celebrations. This one is for a lovely young lady who is turning 18 this week, they had a sleepover on Saturday night, and surprisingly actually got some sleep!
Because I was on a purple roll I decided to make this card with Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo. Because the birthday girl is a fun loving girl I wanted to make a fun sort of card for her, and wanted to use Mixed Bunch stamp set in some way. I punched one of the flowers out of the front layer of DSP and embossed one of the flower stamps with White Embossing Powder, I just love how the white gives a project real 'pop'. The flower I punched out made a backing for another Wisteria Wonder flower embellished with a White Jumbo Brad. The other flowers all have a rhinestone in the centre for a bit of bling.
Here is a look at the inside of the card, you can see there is a middle panel that has a hole in it and you can see the second part of the sentiment through it. Petite Pairs stamp set is just perfect for this style of card, and I can see me making a few more with this design. I added a lovely sparkly "18" with my Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies, I just love these, especially teamed with glimmer paper!
Here is the centre of the card photographed at a different angle. I also wanted to point out that the paper the card is sitting on to be photographed is a personalised matching wrapping paper that I made using an A3 sheet of photocopy paper that I have stamped on in Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo using stamps that matched the card. I also added some light sponging. It looked so cute together when the gift was wrapped, and of course I stamped on the envelope to match.
Here is the video from Dawn, it is well done with clear instructions and has all the measurements up on screen to make it easy to follow. You can also find more of Dawn's samples on her blog Dawn's Stamping Thoughts.
Here is the step by step instructions for the butterfly card I made for one of my Convention swaps this year. You will notice that the colour changes part way through, from Calypso Coral to Island Indigo, this is mostly because I didn't think of doing a tutorial until part way through the process and by then had stamped and punched out all my butterflies in Island Indogo! I found using the Vellum rather than card stock gave the butterfly's wings a softer look and let some of the light through.
Products
8.5 x 8.5cm piece of Vellum Card Stock
A5 Confetti White card stock
10cm x 14.3cm Coloured card stock
9.5cm x 13.8cm Very Vanilla card stock
Ink: Lucky Limeade, colour of choice to match coloured card stock, VersaMark
Stamps: Mixed Blossom, Loving Thoughts, Creative Elements
Use your Brayer to cover some card stock weight Vellum with your desired colour. If you are mass producing you can do this a sheet at a time. I found cutting widths of 8.5cm allowed me to emboss a few at a time.
Either use your Heat Tool to dry the ink, or leave it overnight to dry naturally.
When the ink has dried turn the vellum over so the un-inked side is facing you.
Rub over the Vellum with the embossing buddy and then stamp the flower image onto the vellum using VersaMark ink.
Cover this with embossing powder and heat with the heat tool. You can see the image to the left is only partly heated at this point.
Allow the embossing to cool and then punch out the stamped image with the Blossom Punch. I am totally in love with this punch at the moment, and with this particular image out of the Mixed Bunch set too!
Cut away two of the petals as you can see in this picture. Save these off cuts as you can make another butterfly with them too (see below).
Stamp the flourish from the Creative Elements set on opposite corners of the Very Vanilla card stock. You could use a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for this, but I found that doing 50 or so I just did them by hand.
Stamp on the body of the butterfly - I used Early Espresso ink for this.
Adhere the Very Vanilla layer to the coloured card stock. Score and fold the A5 card stock in half to form the base of your card (not shown here) and then adhere the coloured layer to the front of the card.
Attach the butterfly to the card using the 2-Way Glue down the centre of the butterfly so that the wings lift a little.
Cut out a frame for your sentiment and sponge the edges to match your card stock.
Depending on how good your 'eye' is you can add the sentiment with or without the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (I did use it for this step).
You can then adhere the sentiment to the card either with SNAIL or with a couple of Dimensionals.
Variations
Here is a Calypso Coral version with gold embossing, while I quite liked this I was really taken with the silver, especially on the darker Island Indigo.
Remember how I said not to throw away the spare petals? This is the butterfly made using two lots of petals, I angled them slightly so that the space at the bottom was just a bit smaller than the space at the top.
And finally this is the card made with the 'off-cut' butterfly. You can see that I have stepped it up by adding some ribbon, and if you look closely some rhinestones down the body of the butterfly. I have also used the Word Window and Modern Label punch for the sentiment and added some mini brads.
You could use any sentiment or punch shape on the card, I am a big believer in use what you have on hand! If you don't have the butterfly body stamp you could draw the antenna on by hand or tie a piece of Bakers Twine around the middle of the butterfly and use the knot ends for antenna (wouldn't work so well with the off cut butterfly)
It has been a while since I joined in with the Friday Mashup challenge, but with a 4 day weekend upon us I have time to do some creating and challenges.
As you know I love doing the mashed up version of the challenge and this week is no different, thought it was a challenge as part of it was a tic tac toe challenge (pick any three elements that line up in a row from the grid), the second part of the challenge was a fancy fold card.
I chose to use neutrals, ribbons and flowers - which was a challenge as I so desperately wanted to add some colour to the flower! I picked a piece of the newsprint DSP so that the pretty little butterfly was peeking out from behind the flower (again wanting to add some colour!). I used Basic Grey as the neutral and kept it monochromatic.
The facy fold part of the card is that it is a telescoping card! This is the first time I have made one of these and I was so happy with how it turned out, and how easy they are once you have things lined up. I knew the effect of the card had worked when I saw the expression on my daughter's face when I opened up the card!
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