Butterfly Wishes and Pattern Play

 Butterfly watching is one of my favourite pastimes and when we are allowed to travel, I like to make sure that the opportunity to visit local Botanical gardens is on my list where I can check out the native  butterfly life. There were a few butterflies left in my studio, from a previous card project so today, I set about seeing how I could use them a little differently. 

My latest Stampin' Up!® box arrived today and contained, amongst other goodies, the Playing with Patterns Suite. Many of the stamps in the set are perfect for creating your own DSP so that's what I did.

I used the striped stamp in Calypso Coral, Cinnamon Cider and Bumble Bee horizontally on a 14.4 x 10 cm Whisper White Cardstock and used the Stamperatus to ensure even spacing.  I had matching  Butterflies from the Butterfly Wishes Stamp set, already stamped and punched with the Butterfly Duet punch.   I used to Stampin' Dimensional to fix the butterflies to a strip of White Cardstock and then fixed that to a Calypso Coral base card. I cut two one cm strips from the stamped cardstock and reserved those for inside the card and the envelope.

The sentiment was stamped on whisper white, and die cut out with the smallest Stitched Rectangle die and its backing was die cut from the next side up, using a scrap of the cardstock stamped with lines. the sentiment was attached with Stampin' Dimensionals to the striped cardstock which was then attached to the front of the card with glue.

If you would like to see all of the glorious Stampin' Up!  products on  offer,

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or click on any of the images below to go have a closer look.

Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set (photopolymer)

Pattern Play Stamp Set (cling)

Stameratus

   

Calypso Coral Cardstock                    Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' pad

  

CinnamonCcider Classic Stampin' pad  Bumble Bee Classic Stampin' pad

Butterfly Wishes

Inspiration can be a tricky thing, sometimes it is elusive and sometimes it surprises us with its presence and almost smacks us in the face. One of the best ways to nudge inspiration a little is to look at and learn from the work of others, a little like the artists of old who studied the work of the Masters. We are very fortunate that the ones who inspire us are so accessible in the Stampin' world. 

Last evening I was watching Brandy Cox on Youtube, creating an amazing butterfly card and it struck me as I watched, that her card bore a resemblance to a quilt I had created a few years ago.( I provide the link at the bottom of the post) An  idea for a card grew. I got pretty excited about butterflies at that stage and couldn't wait to get started in the Studio in the morning. 

I incorporated some of my favourite things in this design, butterflies and rainbows. It was a real labour of love because it took lots of visits to fabric stores with swatches of fabric and a drawing of how I wanted my quilt to look. I am so happy with how it turned out and I love it.

As inspired as I was this morning, sometimes the vision does not immediately translate well to the creation on the desk. One thing that I learned from Brandy's video is not to be afraid of showing the process and progression of a design. In that spirit, I will show the first attempt where I felt that the proportions were all wrong.

The idea was there but...

Attempt two was what I was aiming for. The card is smaller and tighter and I think to proportions are better. It's not very often that I make a square card but I think it works. 

The colours that I used on the  Whisper White cardstock base were, in both cardstock and Classic Stampin' Pads were;

Pacific Point

Balmy Blue

Gorgeous Grape

Highland Heather

Real Red

Calypso Coral

Bumble Bee

Daffodil Delight

So Saffron

Old Olive

Bermuda Bay

Just Jade

and Rococo Rose.  I used the Old World Paper embossing folder on a piece of Whisper White to simulate the stitching on quilt. The coloured cardstock was cut using the smallest square from the Stitched Shapes Die.

I used the Butterfly Wishes Stamp set and Butterfly Duet Punch as well as the sentiment from the Forever Fern Stamp set.

Card two

Once the card was completed, I realised I had lots of large butterflies left, over so I decided to CASE Brandy's card, but give it a slightly different spin. I used Whisper White and  Gorgeous Grape Cardstock, Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather and Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin' Pads. I also added a rhinestone to each of the butterflies and again I used the Butterfly Wishes Stamp set and Butterfly Duet Punch as well as the sentiment from the Forever Fern Stamp set.

I still have lots of butterflies left over so I'm sure there will be more butterfly cards in my future.

If you would like to purchase andy of the products used in these cards you can 

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Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set (Cling)

Or you can use

Butterfly Gala Stamp Set (Photopolymer)

 

Butterfly Duet Punch

Stitched Shape Dies

Below is the Link for Brandy Cox youtube.

https://brandyscards.com/stampin-up-butterfly-gala-stamp-set/

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