April Butterflies

Hello everyone, I hope that you are keeping well. I have lots of projects to share with you this month, using stamps that we featured on the TV shows on Create and Craft. I will spread them out over a few posts, and show you some older projects as well, using the same stamps, I hope that you don't mind.

Our A Year of Stamping stamps are proving to be very popular, and this month's edition, a cluster of butterflies, is no exception. I created several examples to demonstrate if necessary for the shows, but just ended up showing one in the end. I always like to be prepared! I made a background using red, yellow and orange Brushos, sprinkled onto Drawing Cartridge, which I spritzed with water. I let this dry completely. I them stamped the A Year of Stamping Issue 4 - April with Versafine Clair Nocturne and clear embossing powder. This makes the image more vibrant, and creates a gutter for painting, very handy, especially when I need to paint quite quickly during a demo.

I sprinkled a little bit of each of the three colours of Brusho onto an acrylic block and spritzed them with water, then using a paintbrush, I painted the three large butterflies. I added a little bit of red where the dots indicated shading near the butterfly bodies.

I made my own card blank using two pieces of black card. I cut two strips 15.2 cms long. I scored one at 15.2 cms, then folded it on the line. I trimmed the excess away leaving about one and a half cms beyond the fold, and then attached the second strip of card. I then shut the card, and cut the back piece to match the front, using a sharp knife and a ruler. This card is small enough to run through a standard die cutting machine and cut a circle aperture in the front, which is what I needed. I placed the painted background into the card, and put the spare piece of black card, (slightly trimmed) behind it, for stability. The black card base really makes the image pop.

Some time ago, I created a project using this image. I stamped the image three times, once onto book paper, once onto smooth stamping card, and then finally onto patterned paper. I decoupaged the image to create a very colourful project. We showed the card last month as a sneaky peek on the TV shows.

I wanted to recreate this project as a potential demo, but in a different colour option. I used Inktense pencils to colour the book paper and smooth stamping card on the bottom two layers. I chose a zingy green and orange, as they contrast each other so well. My top layer is a patterned paper designed by Lesley, but I have added some Distress Ink to darken it a little bit. I have embossed the top layer with clear embossing powder, when I stamped it. I chose a green card for the matting layer, and used a corner rounder on the edges, to follow the shape of the stamp itself. Again, I have used black card, to make the colours pop. This project requires a bit of cutting out, but I listen to some music, or watch a favourite TV programme, and I am finished before I know it!

My last project using this stamp was to remove the background entirely, and to create a backgound myself. I applied some Distress Oxide to an acrylic block- Twisted Citron and Broken China, which I spritzed with water. I pressed the acrylic block onto a piece of Drawing Cartridge to get a watery background, which I left to dry completely. I inked around the edges with Wilted Violet Distress Ink, and the using Warm Breeze Versafine Clair, I inked up the Square Bubbles stamp, and stamped little bits of it randomly over the background. I held the stamp in my hand, and curled it up, so that only a little bit of the stamp touched the background each time. I did get rather messy fingers!

I used a background paper designed by Lesley once more, and added a bit of Distress Ink again, to tailor the colours exactly to my design. I stamped and embossed using Versamark and white embossing powder. I added the antennae using a white gel pen.

I will be back very soon with more projcts to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by, take care xx