Butterfly Challenge 51

For the alphabetical Butterfly Challenge this time around the letter is 'M' and the theme is MINT and/or MARGINS.  I think I'm close to the mint with my background colour and hopefully the lacy borders at the sides will cover the margins aspect of the challenge.  There are some lovely ideas for inspiration on their blog so why not take a look and maybe come up with a design of your own.

The background was printed from a CD which I must admit hasn't seen the light of day for a long time but I remembered there should be something of a suitable colour on there (in real life it is certainly a minty green although I'm not sure the scan has reproduced it).  The lattice area was die cut in the centre of a square piece of cream Centura pearl card, as were the two lacy borders which had a strip of the background popped behind them.  Butterflies were die cut and set onto a little floral sprig and the greeting was computer printed before backing with matching die cut shapes.  Details below as usual.

Background - printed from Artylicious Essence of Nature CD
Lattice, Borders and Butterflies - dies by Crafter's Companion
Floral Spray - Sue Wilson die
Sentiment - Cuttlebug dies.

Quilled Alpaca

I thought I'd share my quilled alpaca with you today despite not yet having sourced a suitable frame.  For the time being I've quickly made a box to keep him safe until such time as I can pop him onto a nice background in a frame.  He (or she) appears on the cover of one of the 'Twenty to Make' series of books Quilled Animals by Diane Boden.  There are some other great animals inside as well and of course these little books aren't expensive and cover a wealth of crafty topics.  Not the best of photographs but I guess you can get the idea - he stands just over 6" tall.

Easter Bunnies

Last month when I went to the Spring Quilling workshop with Jill she had brought some examples to show us including a card with a row of rabbits in 3D flower pots.  I thought I'd like to have a go at making them in a box frame but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a rectangular frame so had to content myself with making a little family of three to fit into a small square frame.  Last Saturday there was yet another great quilling workshop with butterflies as the theme so watch this space for some to come fluttering by.  In the meantime I'n sharing the rabbits and then heading off in search of a larger frame for the quilled alpaca which I've completed but he will have to stay in a safe place until I can find something suitable.  I've discovered that box frames are not that easy to find in various sizes.

Pixie Snippets Playground 221

I hear it is the first day of spring today but looking out of the window it doesn't look too springlike to me although we have had some lovely days this past week.  It is time again for a new challenge over in the Snippets playground and as always there is some great inspiration from Di as well as a good selection of her favourites from last week's entries.  For my card this week I've embossed and inked a fairly large snippet for the background which I've topped with some snippets of blue card on one of which I stamped a feather before cutting it out using a matching die to leave a 'window'.  I'd come across a piece of card which had been sponged and overstamped with leaves and grasses but which really didn't look as good as I'd intended but of course I couldn't just throw it out!!  I cut out a snippet from an area which looked OK and popped it behind the window, offset the feather, added  a snippet of twine and a greeting.  I didn't have any suitable dark blue for the layering so just sponged around the edges of a white snippet using the same colour used for stamping the feather.

Stamp - from Four Feathers set by Stampin' Up
Die - matching die also by SU
Embossing Folder - Crafter's Companion
Sentiment - matching stamp and die set Bitty Banners also SU

Floral Get Well

I was having one of my regular tidying sessions and came across this pretty floral image from Lily of the Valley (I think) so decided to find a few more bits and pieces to make a card.  I cut out the picture and the backing using dies from Stampin' Up, and the label for the sentiment was cut from the same scrap of pink.  Backing paper was from my stash and I also had a couple of stray corners to use up so popped them on.  I'm off now for yet another desk clearing exercise because my actual working space has reduced to such a tiny space .... again ... it happens to most of us I guess!!

Butterfly Challenge

I wanted to make a card for the Butterfly challenge HERE where the theme is alphabetical and this time around it is for Buttons and/or Bronze.  All sorts of ideas were going through my head until I remembered I had some paper with a design of pearl buttons but of course it took me a while to actually find it!!  Once found I then had to think about the bronze aspect and luckily I have some bronze acrylic paint which I used to paint onto a piece of black card.  When this was dry I die cut a couple of butterflies and lightly sanded to show up the embossing before backing them with a cream layer.  For the cream layer I embossed the card using the die and then carefully cut out with scissors. I've used a brown card with a slight bronze shimmer to cut out an oval and die cut a cream floral spray to which I've added the butterflies.  Scraps of the card were used for the sentiment and some matching gems added.

Background - paper from K & Company acquired many years ago!
Butterflies - Crafter's Companion die
Floral Spray - Tonic die
Sentiment - stamped and cut with Stampin' Up punches

Pixie Snippets Playground 220

I can't believe it is time for the Snippets challenge again but it really is Sunday again already - time flies when having fun doesn't it!!  For my card this week I've used up various bits and pieces, some of which were left over from previous projects because I always seem to make too much background or cut too many die cuts and of course when building a card there are always opportunities for changing my mind leaving me with piles of snippets..  I had a spare and lonely flower which had been stamped and embossed before cutting out with scissors and found a toning piece of background paper before scrabbling around amongst my snippets to find enough bits for the rest of the card.  The square frame turned out to be wrong for a previous card so that was brought into play; I had a die cut border strip lying around so I put some double sided sticky onto a scrap of white card before cutting a backing for this border using the outer edge die from the set.  The sticky was then exposed and matching silk glitter was applied to this piece before using it to back the fancy part of the border.  The sentiment was one left on a sheet which I'd printed; this was die cut using an oval and finally I found two more snippets of the white pearl card to cut a backing for the sentiment and a couple of leaves.

Do take a look at the pretty card from Di this week - who doesn't just love House Mouse??

Frame - Sue Wilson Noble pierced squares dies
Border - Gemini die from Sue Wilson
Ovals - Spellbinders dies
Flower - Sue Wilson stamp (shaded peony), leaves Britannia die