Butterfly Challenge 79

There is a new challenge for the month over on the Butterfly Blog and they are asking for 'Layers and/or Cream'.  It so happened that I was playing around with ideas this morning for using some cream pearl and coppery pearl card with embossing folders  so when I spotted this theme I immediately decided that I'd add a butterfly into the mix.  I used two different embossing folders one of which was a magazine freebie and also some dies which happen to match the shape in the centre.  I just needed to die cut and emboss a butterfly, add a sentiment and that's it - seven layers!  Do pop over to take a look at the ideas for butterflies and layers - some lovely inspiration as always.

Embossing Folders - base layer Creative Expressions (I think)
Cream Square - free embossing folder with a magazine
Shaped square layers - Crafter's Companion dies
Butterfly - Spellbinders die and tiny punched one using X-cut punch
Sentiment - printed on computer punched with Stampin' Up punches
Card - Centura Pearl from Crafter's Companion

Distress Oxide Ink

I spotted an interesting technique for stamping with the Distress Oxide ink pads and decided to have a go using some three-step clear stamps.  I wasn't sure how (or even if) it was going to work so I started small with a single flower head, a stem and a couple of leaves and because of all the wetting required I used heavy watercolour paper.  The first stage was to choose the colours going from light to dark, stamping the base layer of the flower with the lightest, spritzing with water to let the ink bleed a little before drying with a heat gun.  The same layer was then stamped over the top with the second colour, spritzed and dried again.  Next came the second layer of the flower, again with the medium shade, again spritzed and dried - followed again with the second layer stamp again but this time with the darkest colour, spritzed and dried with a final coloured stamping without spritzing - phew!!  The final thing was to stamp the outline of the flower with black ink, masked the flower and stamped the stem.  I then repeated the multi stamping, spritzing and drying with the leaves - hopefully you are still with me here.

I was pleased with the result so die cut the piece, layered it up and added some toning elements for the finished card.  This is a technique which I will be repeating with other multi-layer stamps and maybe I'll get beyond a single flower - a bit time consuming but worth it I thought for something a bit different.

Distress Oxide Colours - Fossilised Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick
Stamp - from Penned and Painted by Stampin' Up
Die Cut Border - Sue Wilson die
Circles - Spellbinders and Tattered lace dies

Snippets Turned into More Snippets!

It is time for the fortnightly visit to the Pixie Snippets Playground again and this time I've actually gathered together some snippets and cut them into even smaller snippets!!  You might have guessed by now that I'm very fond of using the Pixie Powders for backgrounds and usually work on fairly large pieces of watercolour paper which I cut down as required until pretty well every scrap is used.The diagonal die was used to cut a purple layer and I then used the interior part to cut a piece of the 'pixied' paper, carefully saving all the little strips, chevrons and triangles.  The purple piece was put onto a background before popping all the coloured bits into the spaces - some would say I'm mad to fiddle with this I'm sure!!  The sentiment was stamped onto yet another snippet of the background paper and cut along with a purple layer using banner dies.  I'm also trying to use up the tail ends of lots of 6" paper pads and luckily this piece was just the right colour.  Finally a layered flower was die cut and apart from some really tiny pieces I've used all the Pixie paper with these colours.  Time for another sprinkling/spritzing session I think!

Do take a look to see what Di has made to inspire us and as usual she has given several tips on the best way to put the card elements together for a good result.

Main Die - Diagonal Chevron from Spellbinders
Banners - Sue Wilson dies
Flower - Sizzix die and Stampin' Up flower punches

Back Again!

Two posts in one day  - whatever next?

Just when I'd decided I seriously didn't NEED any more crafty stash someone comes along with more temptation in the shape of some gorgeous 3D embossing folders and yes, you've guessed it I just had to have a couple of them.  They arrived on my doormat this afternoon and naturally I just had to have a very quick play and have produced this very simple, quick and easy card although I'm sure more elaborate cards will be coming along in due course.  Lots of potential here for gilding, sponging, brushing and so on.

I simply embossed some black card and rubbed over with gilding wax before putting the whole piece onto a 5 x 7 kraft card.  More black and kraft card was used to die cut a fancy shape and stamp a sentiment and that's it!

3D embossing folder - Country Garden from Crafter's Companion
Pebeo Empire gold gilding wax
Sue Wilson die - Frames and Tags, Zoe

Batch Making

Batch making isn't a thing I normally do as I'm not a great fan of production line methods, much preferring to make each card as an individual item from start to finish although I realise this isn't necessarily an efficient way of working.  However I came across a box of DL cards which isn't a size I work with much nowadays and decided I really should try to use some of them up.  I decided to set about making some 'notelet' cards which I thought would make a nice gift as a set of six with envelopes in a box.

I started with watercolour paper and Pixie Powders to prepare some background pieces which I then edged with a gold pen and cut to size to fit above the stamped wording which I'd lined up onto the base cards using a stamp positioning gizmo which certainly makes this easier to achieve. The dandelion clock images were then stamped onto the coloured pieces before mounting them onto the front of the note cards.  A box was made to fit the cards with their envelopes and I was actually surprised how quickly and easily I'd managed to make a nice gift item - here is just one of the cards

I still have plenty of the DL cards left so I might well decide to produce some more sets with different colours and images - the box is quite an easy thing to make too once the size has been decided.

Stamps used - Hobby Arts Dandelion set
Words - free stamp which came with a magazine
Pixie Powder - olive green

Wild Flower

I have lots of pieces of watercolour paper around which have been used for various experiments with inks, powders, sprays and so on.  In an effort to use up some of them I've been seeing what I could combine to make some cards.  This card was made using a piece of one such sheet which had been coloured with Pixie Powders.  I found a piece of paper for a general background and then some scraps of toning paper and card to build up a few layers.  The wild flower and butterfly were cut from scraps of black card and the sentiment stamped onto a tiny scrap of the 'Pixie' paper before being cut out with a punch.

Pixie Powders on watercolour paper
Background paper - from my stash of Chocolate Baroque papers
Rectangle dies - Spellbinders
Flower - Wild flower die from Sizzix
Butterfly - die cut which was lying around
Sentiment - stamp and punch from Stampin' Up
Red die cut - Sue Wilson die

Where Did That Week go??

The past week has just flown by with a Bank Holiday, visits to get a computer problem sorted, grass to be cut and so the list goes on.  I do actually have a card to post today which is a result of experimenting with some glitter combined with an embossing folder. The folder is the one which has come to be known as 'that embossing folder' after it became so very popular when it was given away as a magazine freebie.  It appears everyone wanted to own it so it went into production for sale and keeps on selling out even now.  I embossed it on purple card and then used Cosmic Shimmer copper Glitter Kiss.  A frame was added along with a die cut shape with a simple greeting. It is of course difficult to portray and lovely effect of this glitter without seeing the card for real.

Embossing Folder - free with magazine quite a long time ago
Frame - Noble Pierced dies from Sue Wilson
Sentiment Plaque - Zoe Frames and Tags by Sue Wilson
Glitter - Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Kiss, copper