Butterfly card for Sheila

It's my sister in laws birthday  on Saturday and as usual I have left making the card to the last possible minute.  I started this before going to work this morning,  continued it at lunchtime, then finished it when I got home from work. I had just enough time to take a photo of it before putting it in the envelope and posting it. I do hope she gets it on time.

For this card I used the Touch Of Nature Stamp set from Stampin' up along with  Concorde crush card stock, some  matt finish  gold card stock, whisper white card stock, a Versamark ink pad,
gold  embossing powder, for the gold springs,   black embossing powder for the butterfly, an SU marker in Pumpkin pie,  a blender pen and lavender ink pad  to colour the butterfly.

Basic Instructions.

Handy tip.... Before heat embossing anything,  make sure you give your card stock a good wipe over with an anti static pad. Stampin' Up call these little pads embossing buddies and they really are your best friend when doing heat embossing.

They  help to reduce the amount of embossing powder  that sticks to areas you don't want it to stick too if not eliminate it altogether.

I stamped the butterfly onto a scrap piece of whisper white card stock  in Versamark ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder and coloured the wings with a  the pumpkin pie  SU marker,  the purple spots I coloured with a retired ink  called  Almost Amethyst and a blender pen as I wanted the colour to fade out a little towards the bottom of the spot. 

When the ink was dry I  cut out the butterfly carefully but  cut  off  antennae, YES, I said  cut off the Antennae,  these are far to fiddly to cut out. 

Once cut out, I took an ink dauber with a little black craft ink and daubed around the cut edges to conceal the white edges of card stock.

On the a square of whisper white card stock  which had been cut to 3" x 3" ,  although on reflection I think this square could actually do with being a little smaller. Maybe 2 1/2" X 2 1/2" would look better.

I stamped the sprig of foliage and the butterfly for a second time . I  heat embossed the butterfly and the sprig in  gold.
Most of this butterfly will not be seen but it plays an important role as you will see later.


Then  I sponged over the embossing and the sides of the square in Almost Amethyst ink to take away the starkness of the white card and give just a hint of  a purple sky.

I cut alternate layers of  purple and gold card for mounting the butterfly  topper on,  added a piece of whisper white ribbon  between the layers and added a bow.

The base card I stamped around the edges again using Versamark ink and the sprig of foliage and heat embossed in gold.
The topper was then glued to the centre of the base card.

The last step was to attach the coloured butterfly on top of the gold embossed butterfly with very tiny   dots of glue on the under side of it's body and four  small double side foam pads on the tips of the wings.
Match up the  the coloured butterfly over the top of the gold butterfly exactly press the body down firmly  with blade of a craft knife or edge of a rule until it has stuck firmly.  make any minor adjustments to position of wings before pressing down on the foam pads.

Now you will see why I stamped the base butterfly....... 
So I didn't have to cut out those blessed antennae!!!!  
I did think about adding a greeting but then  thought this might look nice in a frame, but not with a greeting on it.

Wedding Invitations

 It's been a while since I have posted anything . To be honest my craft room is in such a mess it's almost  impossible to work in there. Since I lost my airing cupboard to a new boiler all the linens have be stacked up outside the  craft room making virtually  impossible to get in there. The problem should be resolved tomorrow as my new bespoke  linen cupboard arrives. But enough of my  domestic babble and on to my latest creations.
I was asked  last week to knock up a few samples of wedding invitations as cheaply as possible.  So I have been forced into clearing a small space on my work bench to create the invitations below.

I don't know the bride to be so mum is giving me ideas as to what  her daughter may like.
Instructions so far  are  they are going for a beach/ travel themed wedding and the chosen colours maybe blue and/or yellow.
For the invitation above I have used bashful blue card stock and ribbon and the scallop shell from the Natures next stamp set  stamped onto whisper white card and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.

The second one is the swallowtail background stamp from SU heat embossed, again using silver embossing powder on whisper white card stock.


The third one Marina mist card stock and the scallop shell again with silver embossing powder.

Mum also mentioned Butterflies  so I have used the

Swallowtail stamp to create these two invitations. I can't say they are my cup of tea but I do find that other people tend to like the card I make, that I don't like. (Very strange)                                   Here I have embossed the butterfly in white and daubed  pool party ink all over the embossed image

.

 I have more ideas brewing in my head and during the summer I shall be making more samples.

Another project I am working on is a mini album of my NEW GRANDSON. He arrived 9 days early taking us all by surprise.
I will post photos of the album when it's completed.

En Francais

Stampin'Up s En Francais
background stamp,
Burgundy grosgrain , The butterfly is
stamped with Black Stazon onto gold card ,
cut out and stuck onto card with foam pads
to give it dimension.
I used crystals for the butterfly's body.
Sorry, I have no idea the makers of the
butterfly and flourish stamps I used.