Butterfly Challenge #82

I was honoured to be asked to be Guest designer for the Butterfly Challenge #82, but I was a little less sure when I knew the chosen colour was Orange Peel. It is not a colour I would normally chose to craft with, but it is a bright happy colour and I wanted to send a cheerful card to one of my sisters who is going through a tough time, so this was perfect. The actual challenge was to use at least one Butterfly + M for matching pairs, and/or the colour Orange Peel. 

So I started off by making an orange base card. I had several new items that I wanted to try out, so next I chose some heavy white card and embossed it with one of the new Crafter's Companion 3D embossing folders - Country garden. To enhance the depth of the embossing I lightly swiped it with gold metallic paint that I bought at a recent Lidl's craft sale. I wiped the excess off so some of the design showed through white. It dried with a nice sheen to it.

I used some more of my orange card to cut one of my favourite oval frames. (I think it is a d'sire die but I had it before I kept account of the names so I am not sure). I have a plain oval die that fits the centre of this, so I cut it from white paper and used another almost new stamp - I think I have inked it once before. It is from the Altnew set, Persian Motifs. I chose orange and yellow copic markers to colour it and mounted it on the base. For the butterflies I used another new set (I have been spoiling myself lately!), also by Altnew, called Painted Butterflies. There were plenty to choose from but I wanted my Matching pair, so I chose just one. These are stamped in three layers using different shades, and my Misti comes in very handy to get them positioned correctly. There is a matching set of dies so I cut them out and adhered them to the frame. I used Momento Tangelo ink to stamp a simple sentiment and cut it as a banner with an orange mat.

Now I shall go over to Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge and see what lovely creations you have made.

June Rudolph Day Challenge

Here we are at Rudolph Day again already. Because I have been busy finishing off items for our son's wedding next week, I needed a quick and easy card to make for this challenge, so I turned once again to my Silhouette cameo library of cutting files and I chose this picture of a shepherd. 

When I brought it up in my silhouette software I realised I didn't really like the way it was going to turn out. If I just cut it and adhered the pieces to a base card I would end up with black stars (and black everything else), on a white background. So I played around with it a bit and separated the elements and then just cut the wavy 'ground' lines to use as a template. From that I made a mask which I used to add some distress inks in blue above the mask for the sky. Then I used the other half of the mask to cover the sky and dusted on green inks for the ground.

Next I cut out the ground lines, shepherd, sheep, large star and script from black vinyl  and used transfer tape to move them all in one go, onto my background, trying to line up the black pieces with my sky-meets-earth background.

Then I used some silver holographic vinyl to cut the inner large star and all the small stars and again transferred them all together, making sure I fitted them around the black silhouettes. I neatened each side edge with holographic silver peel offs and that was my card finished.

While my software was set up to do this, I made four more cards the same so another five have gone into my Christmas stash box.

And that's all there is to it. So now I will link up with the June Rudolph Day Challenge, and I hope to see lots of your links there too.

Butterfly Challenge #79

Having just about recovered from having my lovely son and his partner here for twelve days, while also suffering with a virus that left me feeling like a wet dish-rag, I decided it was time to go looking for my mojo and get making again.

I needed a birthday card for one of my sisters later this month, so when I saw the Butterfly Challenge was open for four weeks this time, I thought I could combine the two.

My sister will be a magnificent 89 years old, so I wanted something  bright and bold for her and I chose some dark fuchsia-pink card, which is one that would normally be left as I came to the end of a mixed colour pad!

I used a cutting file that I think I bought from Craftuprint. It was for a tent-fold card with a circular, over the edge, centre piece, but it turned out to be a poor file because the two were welded together which meant cutting it would leave me with a folded card with a big hole in the centre, and lots of 'confetti'!! So I played around with it in my Silhouette Cameo design software for a while and managed to extract a file for the base and a second one for the centre overlay, which I made sure to save in my library so I can use it again sometime.

I cut the base from the pink card and the overlay from some pale cream card.

For the centre , I used a hero Arts stamp on the left over cream card, and sorted out some copic pens that toned with the pink card to colour it, adding some yellow Leonie Pujol sparkle ink to the flower centre. Then I cut them out with the matching Sizzix framelet die, and glued them to the cream mat.

For the butterfly I used  two matching Memory Box dies, one lacey and one solid, cutting the lacy one from some more of the cream card, and the solid one from a single layer of Fantasy film-watermelon, which has pink tints in it. I glued them together and then cut a second cream lacey layer and glued the filmy one to it just along the body. I cut a body from a snippet of the pink card and used it to attach the butterfly to the card. This gives the wings a lovely iridescent sheen which actually shows in the photo for once.

I wanted a bold sentiment but the one I had was just too big for the space. It should have looked like this. But I cut it from more cream card anyway and carefully trimmed away the 'swooshes' just leaving me with the two words. I moved them around until they fitted in my space and glued them on, and I am happy with the way this turned out.

So now I will Link up with The Butterfly Challenge #79 where the challenge this time is to use L is for layers,  the colour cream, and of course, a butterfly. And remember, you still have nearly two more weeks to add your own creations.

May Rudolph Day Challenge

Every month on 25th day, I try to make a Christmas card to enter in the Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo.

This month it has been a real challenge as we had my son and his partner out here for the last twelve days - they went home this morning - plus the throat virus I had in January has come back to haunt me, so I haven't felt up to doing much crafting. So I needed a quick and simple design and once again I turned to my Silhouette Cameo files to find one I haven't use so far. I settled on a simple skyline cut-out of Bethlehem, that makes an accordion fold card. As two copies fitted nicely on a sheet of 12 x 12 dark blue card, I cut it twice.

The file was just for the basic shape with the windows and doorways cut out, so I then made files for pieces of yellow paper to go behind all the apertures. I thought they made the back look a bit messy, so I also cut each section of the main card out again just a tiny bit smaller, this time in heavy white paper, and glued those to the back. It made the card a bit more stable, and much neater. 

Finally I opened a sentiment cutting file for the words "Joy to the world; the Lord is come", and divided it into four sections, rearranging and resizing them to fit between the windows on each section. I cut them from dull gold vinyl and transferred them onto the cards.

I was quite pleased with the end result and here it is. 

This was a very straightforward card to make so I saved all my files so I can make a run of them later. For now I have two completed to add to my collection.

I am linking this to the May Rudolph Day Challenge.

Star Gazing for Rudolph Day.

Quite a while ago I  bought this little Art Impressions stamp, but I have never got around to using it. It is a cute image with a lovely sentiment around it, so I decided to make use of it for this month's Rudolph day Challenge. So I stamped it several times onto plain white paper, and coloured three using the same set of copic markers for each one.

I cut the inner square out and mounted it over a second stamped image, which I then cut out with a Go Create frilly circles#0 die. (The image above is square because I cropped my image to get a more detailed picture of the stamp). I distressed the edge of the die cut with blue distress inks, and then decided I was quite happy with the result, so I coloured some more images and cut and mounted them in the same way, so I had a set of six toppers to use.

Then I sorted through my huge collection of pre-cut cards and envelopes, the 12cm square ones for these, and selected some appropriate colours. I have so many of these cards and a lot are in colours I would not normally use. I think they are a left over from when I had access to an excellent QVC seconds shop where they nearly gave away kits that had been opened for a demonstration etc, and I picked up all sorts of stash that I might not other wise have had. So I am really trying to put some of it to good use this year.

Anyway, I then raided my snippets boxes to find patterned papers that toned with my cards and this is the first one I completed. I used a Joanna Sheen star border die to cut along the paper layer, and to make it show more, I also cut it from a thin strip of silver mirri-card, and glued the silver stars into the paper cuts. Then I finished it with a silver peel-off sentiment.

Then I used a variety of papers and other oddments to make the rest of the set. The Christmas Blessings sentiments are also cut with Joanna Sheen signature dies.

So that is six more cards to add to my collection. I am way behind my target, but at least this challenge inspires me to get a few more made each month!

So I am linking this to the April Rudolph Day Challenge, and

Pixie's Snippets Playground, because, for once, I have managed to use up quite a few snippets of paper.

March Rudolph Day Challenge

Well here we are at 25th of the month again. I swear these monthly challenges make the time fly even faster. This has been a busy month for me, so I only managed to put one card together this time. I will have to do better than that to meet my schedule of at least a dozen each month! But here it is anyway.

I started with a 15cm, pale blue preformed card from my stash. It had a printed image on it which I covered with white paper passed through my falling snow embossing folder (sorry I don't know the company). The trees are a Marianne die, the deer family is a Memory Box die I won on this challenge some months ago, and the frame is a Go Kreate 'frilly circles' die (Not a very apt name but I like the shape!). The sentiment was a file in my Silhouette cameo library which I cut using the same cards as the trees and the smaller deer. I finished it off with some glitter glue on the trees, which changed colour because it was on dark card!, and a few holographic snowflake stickers. The left hand tree and snowflake above it are just about hiding a join in the background paper because my embossing folder wasn't wide enough!

So I will link this up with the Rudolph Day Challenge over on Scraps of life by Scrappy Mo, and perhaps I had better start making some for April now.

A mint green butterfly challenge

Despite my good intentions, I did not manage to enter the last Butterfly Challenge. But when I saw the new challenge I was determined to have a go. The challenge is to use a butterfly combined with E for edges, and/or the colour mint green. Well mint green is a colour I use a lot both in my clothing and in my craft, so I was happy use that.

I am currently trying to make a few items for a charity stall at a coffee morning at the end of the month, and a couple of weeks ago I saw a project on Dreaming Tree that I wanted to try. So I purchased the cutting file which was for a paper sculpture designed to fit in a 12" square shadow box frame. We cannot buy these in my area of Spain, so my sister bought four frames and posted them to me, but I chose to work with 8" frames instead. So I resized the files and cut them out using my Silhouette Cameo machine. I chose mint green card for the background and had made the first one ready to be framed when the parcel arrived. (Sorry it is hard to get a photo of something behind glass, so there is some reflection distortion on the left side).

The first layer of white is cut twice and the two parts are glued together for added strength, and mounted onto the background with foam tape. Then the decoupage layer is cut and shaped, and mounted onto the base. I added a few iridescent and pale green gems to add some sparkle. As you can see from the picture, I downsized the file a touch too much because I did it before the frames arrived. I would have preferred it if the white outer edge had met the frame with no green showing, but I intend to make this again with probably a pink background so I will do better next time!

Then I resized the files again to fit on a 6" square card. This time I only cut the lower layer once and glued it directly onto a mint base card. I added the decoupage layers and some gems as in the picture, but using pearls instead of gems on the butterflies. Then I used a Joanna Sheen signature die to cut "Happy birthday" from a snippet of the card and covered it with glossy accents to make it pop a little more. I glued it where  the background was flat. The picture is protected by the glass, but I put a little silicone glue under the butterflies' wings on the card to save it losing all its dimension in the post. So here is the card.

I was pleased with how well this smaller file cut from card. I think the new Premium blades for the cameo are a big improvement. here is a little picture of the two items together so you can see there really is quite a difference in their size.

So now I will link this up with Butterfly Challenge#74: Mint green (I can't really call a wooden frame an edge so I will just go with the colour this time),

and Double "D" Challenges: Things that fly.

Non-Traditional cards for Rudolph Day

On the 25th of each month we try to post about another Christmas card we have made, and suddenly the date has arrived again. I am a wee bit ahead of myself as I am writing this on the evening of 24th, but I am sure by tomorrow, there will be a Rudolph Day Challenge for me to link up with.

I am really trying to use up my papers and card, but also looking at items that have never been used, and browsing my files this week I came across a digital stamp that I bought along with several others, from Aurora's Wings. It is called the Rose Angel, and I am not even sure it is a Christmas image, but I decided to use it to make some very non-traditional Pink Christmas cards. I had the forethought to choose my dies for frames up front, so I could print out the image in the right sizes. That doesn't happen very often!

I printed it three times, and coloured each of them in much the same way, using my copic markers. Then I punted around for pieces of card to go with them. So here is my first card.

I found a new sheet of deep pink card which made two base cards, and a scrap of lighter pink for the frame which was cut with the largest die from the Spellbinders set, Resplendent Rectangles.  I used some Tsukineko sheer shimmer spritz on the image to give it just a little sparkle, and cut it out with the next size down from the same die set, and mounted them together on the base card.

I wrote the sentiment on the computer and printed it out three times. I made one into a banner and glued it across the base of my image.

The second card was made using the other half of the deep pink card, and I again spritzed the image. This time I cut and framed her with  Just Rite Nested medium oval labels, using the same light pink card as before. Then I cut two panels using Sue Wilson's Striplets-Lattice Windows die from white card and layered them under the image. I cut the second sentiment using the cutting edge and inner edge of a label die (make unknown). I liked this layout and will use it again some time.

My third card is slightly different. I used a white base card and covered it with a snippet of pink backing paper. The image and frame were cut using  stitched square dies, and the third sentiment, cut as for the second card, was attached at the base with short off-cuts of sticky ribbon.

It is not like me to use pink for Christmas but I think it worked quite well, and I have three more cards to go in my collection for next Christmas. 

So in the morning I will link this up with the February Rudolph day challenge and see who else is getting ahead making cards for next Christmas.