Pop Out Butterfly

I promise this will be the last butterfly for a little while but I had to share it because it really does look pretty darned cool (well, that's my opinion, and this is my blog so I get to say what I want so there LOL).

This is another of the cutout butterflies which I made a while back, this time in a colour combination pinched from a recent ColourQ challenge (I can never organise myself to do these challengers during the set time frame, but it's a nice colour scheme no matter when you do it, right?)

Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used: 
Stamp(s): Mixed Bunch, Creative Elements
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Tempting Turquoise
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Pearls Basic Jewels

More Shabby Chic

After all this time, looking sadly at other people's amazing "shabby chic" style cards and wishing I had whatever it was that it takes to create such pretty things - I may have cracked it!

First this ...

And now this:

I'm particularly proud of this one - and it is so much prettier in real life!

Originally I sat down with elements of this card in mind - I liked the combination of Framelits and Designer Frames Embossing Folder and wanted to see what I could come up with.  But I also had an idea that I should use a colour that hasn't been getting much airtime - so out came Calypso Coral.  I have to admit, this is not a favourite colour of mine, so it has sat untouched and unloved in my collection.  I had no idea what to pair it with.

So I did what I always do when I don't know - than you Google - and voila!  I found this beautiful card made by a fellow SU demo in Perth, and my colour combination (and some of my inspiration) was complete.  Who knew that Calypso Coral would look so good paired with Pool Party and Soft Suede (with just a touch of Old Olive)?


Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:
Stamps: Creative Elements, Vintage Vogue
 Ink: Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
 Cardstock: Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake
 Other: Eyelet Border Punch, Labels Collection Framelits, Designer Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folders, Extra-Large Oval Punch, Crimper, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Bird Builder Punch, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Basic Pearls

Cutout Butterflies

A couple of months ago, I attended Stampin' Up's annual convention here in Melbourne. One of the highlights of convention is seeing fellow demonstrators present a Workshop Wow on stage - they are all so clever, and we always come away with some nifty little trick to share with out customers.

Kirsty Brown showed us a stunning way to use our Beautiful Butterflies Sizzix die. I would try to explain it, but a picture would do the job way better. Here's my take on her nifty technique:


And a closeup:

I'm not sure if it shows up in the photo, but I spritzed the Bashful Blue butterfly with a Frost White Shimmer Paint spray after embossing it.

Once you have the positioning correct, these double cut butterflies are a snap to make - just ask the ladies I taught it to the other week!

Supplies used:
Stamp(s): Baroque Motifs, Vintage Vogue
Ink: Pear Pizazz, Concord Crush
Cardstock: Conford Crush, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White, Bashful Blue
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Finial Press Em3/16" Corner Rounder, Basic Rhinestones

Another Butterfly

I know, I really need to get off this butterfly kick, but this is just so much fun! Here we have yet another butterfly easel card, this time in Crumb Cake and Rich Razzleberry (how awesome is this combination of colours?).

This time I've blinged these up a little with rhinestones - love these things *g*.

Supplies used:
Stamp(s): Baroque Motifs
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Basic Rhinestones

Butterfly Easel Cards

These are just so cute!

I was blog surfing the other night, looking for more ideas using my Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, and came across this by the talented Bronwyn Eastley. I was intrigued and investigated further - turns out she has a tutorial on her blog on making a slightly smaller version (there is a link at the end of the Faux Fabric Butterfly post).

So easy! So effective!

So naturally I made two *g*


Here's a close up of the Baja Breeze butterfly, which I made following Bronwyn's instructions.

The edges and embossed design are lightly sponged with matching Baja Breeze ink just to emphasise the texture a bit.

I think it probably needs some shimmer spritz ... might have to disassemble it and rectify that.

Do you like the centre? I bought a packet of the Designer Brads ages ago, but never found the right project to put them on until now. The Filigree brads (as shown here) are actually two parts - a small silver brad and a decorative hardware piece to put behind it (in two sizes - the small is shown here).

Supplies used:
Ink: Baja Breeze
Cardstock: Baja Breeze
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Filigree Designer Brads

I was so encouraged by my success I tried my hand at making one of these easel cards using the largest butterfly on the die. After a bit of trial and error, I managed to get it to work.

Here is a closeup of the Pink Pirouette butterfly ... as you can see, I went a little further with the decorations on this one, by sparkling up the brad with some Dazzling Diamonds. To do this, I used tweezers to hold the prongs of the brad and smooshed it into my Versamark pad. Then I dipped it into Heat & Stick powder and heated it until the adhesive just melted. Then I dunked it straight into a tub of Dazzling Diamonds and voila! And that stuff is well glued down, too, I checked - it's not going to shed all over the place.

Still might need Shimmer Paint on this one though ...

Supplies used:
Stamp(s): Bella Toile
Ink: Pink Pirouette
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Filigree Designer Brads, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds

Fabric Butterflies

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I recently attended the annual Stampin' Up! convention (held right here in Melbourne this year - very handy!). As always, we were treated to entertaining and informative presentations on different aspects of the business of Stampin' Up! as well as nifty crafting ideas to share with our customers.

One of the things that was highlighted was the use of the Big Shot as more than a papercrafting tool. Now I already knew this, in fact I made a little sample book of all the things I had laying about that I put through the Big Shot, just to see what it would cut.

But somehow over the past year I had forgotten. Seeing what people had created using the some of the SU exclusive Sizzix dies made me want to try my hand at something a little different from my usual cards.

And here they are:

Using the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, you can cut four different butterfly shapes. Here I have used the three smallest, cut out of felt scraps leftover from my daughter's Textiles project over the holidays (and was I kicking myself when I realised she could have used the Big Shot to help her out?!).

I dug out my old embroidery thread and did some simple backstitch and blanket stitching to edge the layers of wings, and then raided my beading supplies for the bodies. This is where the Rhinestone Brads (on special this week until May 24) would have been perfect, if I had any - I'll be adding them to my next order for sure!

Overall it only took a couple of hours to put these together, and that's including the time spent trying to a) find my beads and b) decide which ones to use. I still have to sift through all that jewellery stuff to find pin backs to turn these into brooches. Or perhaps I could sew them onto a ponytail holder or a headband?

For reference, the largest butterfly shown here is 7.6cm across.

And here's closeups of each ...

Supplies used:
Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die