Using a Trapeze Template for the Butterfly Challenge.

Before I start I'll share a 'senior moment' with you. I have been housebound for nearly two weeks with a nasty throat and ear virus, and I needed something to get me working again, so I thought I'd look to see what the latest butterfly challenge was. I glanced at it and saw P for paper piecing and thought I could do that, so I found my Leane Creatief butterfly stamp and stamped it twice onto white card. I coloured the outer frame in black on one and dark brown on the other, and decided I preferred the brown one. So I then stamped the image again, parts of it anyway, on several papers from my patterned snippets box, and proceeded to cut out the sections from the wings and glue them into place on my white image. Soon I had a pretty paper-pieced butterfly ready to go on a card.

Then I went back to the challenge blog and discovered there was a sneaky little 'r' in that word, and what I should have made is a paper-pieRced card!

So back to square one: - This time I dug out a Trapeze stencil by Mariannedesign.nl, bought decades ago, and used only once that I can remember. The idea with these stencils is to cut an aperture with a 'floating island' in the centre, held in place by stitching. This week's challenge is also to use the colour fern, which I presume can really be almost any shade of green, so I made a dark green base card and taped the stencil to the front. Then I carefully cut around the three unwanted sections and removed them.

Next I pierced holes round the circle and the triangle leaving some out, because I didn't need them all for my pattern. So when the stencil had been removed I was left with this, which I am showing to prove the paper really is pierced, because later I am going to cover it up!

The stitching is the next stage. This is a bit of a fiddle especially as I chose to use metallic thread which can be stiff and inclined to tangle, and I also added beads to some threads for extra interest. When all the stitching is done, sharp scissors and a very steady hand are needed to cut away the three struts that were supporting the triangle, without cutting any of the threads. It is not pretty when that is finished as all the threads are secured by bits of masking tape, which now needed to be hidden. 

To do this I cut two squares from a sheet of paper saved from a magazine I think, and cut a circular aperture in each, just one or two millimeteres smaller than the one on the card, and I glued one on the front and one on the back of my stitched piece. I also cut a matching triangle of the paper to go in the back of the 'island'. On the front of the triangle I glued a butterfly image that I bought a sheet of when I bought the stencil. They provided some extra layers so I decoupaged it a little. Then I cut a large frame using a Marrianne cut and emboss die and removed its centre with a tiny-scalloped circle die, and glued this to the front.

To finish it off, I added tiny green and pink gems to the spaces around the frame and in three of the corners. In the fourth corner I stamped a simple sentiment and added a small butterfly sticker. Then I piped a little green glitter glue around the butterfly's wings. So here is the finished card.

And here is a close up of one corner to show the detail better.

I did feel that perhaps the dark green card masked the sewing a bit and I am in two minds about adding a white insert behind it. Here I have just placed a piece of paper inside for the photo. Hubby likes it better with white behind it. See what you think.

So now I will link this to Butterfly Challenge #72: P is for paper-Piercing and F for the colour Fern. I think I have used enough shades of green to cover that as well.

Meanwhile there is still a paper-pieced butterfly fluttering around here somewhere, looking for a card to land on, so back to the drawing board!

P.S. Please see my next post to find out where she eventually landed.