Butterfly Mind

Hello everyone, our unusual lockdown life seems to be rather normal these days. Crowds and large gatherings almost feel out of place and it will be strange to go back to a life where we can meet up and see friends once again. Hopefully you have been able to catch Lesley's daily Butterfly Tree Facebook Live get togethers and have been getting lots of inspiration from her demos and tips. Maybe you have made new friends through these virtual gatherings, and do not feel so isolated being able to share in the chat and crafty experience. I have been 'meeting' some of my friends for online video chats, and at least we can still keep in touch with each other. I hope that you are all managing okay and finding ways of dealing with life as we know it right now.

I am sharing a couple of cards today featuring stamps used from last month's TV shows on Hochanda. I actually made these cards a little while ago, but never blogged them, so decided to show them to you this time around instead. The first card features the Bokeh technique on the background, and is a bright, zingy card, sure to brighten anyone's day. It would be great for any occasion, and you could add a sentiment to suit the situation.

I created a background using Brushos, and chose a palette of greens and blues, making sure that I covered the background really well. I dried the background, and then using a range of circle stencils, and white ink, starting with the largest stencil, I stencilled over the background. I added enough of the largest circle until I was happy, then moved onto the medium circle, overlapping some of the larger circles, then added the smaller circle, again overlapping some of the other circles.

The Bokeh technique is used to recreate a photographic effect which looks like an out of focus blur on a photograph. It is great for backgrounds, to then add something sharper in the foreground. I chose to add some of the butterflies from Butterfly Mind. I stamped them onto some card that I had coloured with orange Brushos for a really great contrast of colour, and cut them out. I omitted the stamens. I stamped the butterflies once more directly onto the background, and layered the cut out butterflies over the top. I added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

I did create an alternaitive colour option, using blue for the background, and yellow for the butterflies. A zingy pink background with green butterflies might look equally striking, why not try these out for yourself, and see what you think?

For my second card, I created a gelli print background using Distress Inks. I stamped the large film strip butterflies directly onto the gelli print and stamped the butterflies again onto a piece of coloured card, and decoupaged them onto the background. I added the splatter image around the edge of the background to complete the card.

Take care everyone and stay safe, thanks for stopping by, xx