Sunday, December 30, 2012

Star Mini Photo Album

Now that Christmas is over, I finally have some time to record a tutorial for the albums I made this year.  These are so cute and really not that difficult to make.

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They open up to form a star which can be hung as an ornament.

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I think they would be a great first Christmas gift for a new baby or a newlywed couple.  Each year for 12 years, a new picture can be added.  They’re also great as a collection of photos from Christmases past (as I did) or a year in pictures (one for each month).

I made 18 of these little albums this year for my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

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If you’d like to make one, here’s a tutorial.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Materials list:

  • 12 photos sized no larger than 1.75” x 1.75”
  • 18” ribbon (anywhere from one half to one inch wide)
  • White glue
  • Glue stick
  • Scoring board
  • Plain scrapbook paper
  • Three coordinating sheets of scrapbook paper (I used Winter Flannels from Hot Off The Press)
  • Distress ink
  • Paper board (I used a cereal box)

Cover:

  • Cut  a 4 1/8” x 7 1/2” rectangle from the plain scrapbook paper.
    Score lengthwise at 1/2” and 3 5/8”.
    Score crosswise at 1/2”, 3 5/8”, 3 7/8” and 7”.
  • Cut two 3 1/8” squares from paper board (the second largest Nestabilities square die works perfectly for this)

Pages:

  • Cut three 3” x 12” strips and one 9” x 12” strip from the first color. Score every 3 inches.
  • Cut two 2.5” x 12” strips and one 2.5” x 10” strip from the second color.  Score every 2.5 inches.
  • Cut two 2” x 12” strips and one 2” x 4” strip from the third color.  Score every 2 inches.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Tapestry Background Christmas Wreath

The Guest Challenge at the Paper Wishes Message Board for November is to make something with a tapestry background.  You can find a great tutorial for making a tapestry background at Splitcoaststampers. 

As I was getting ready to make a card for this challenge, I discovered that my white ink pad was dry, so I did things a little backward.  I stamped my wreaths first and embossed them with Superfine Embossing powder, then I did the distress ink background and embossed the whole thing again with clear embossing powder.  I love the textured finish.

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I stamped another wreath in black for the focal and colored it with red and green smooch ink.  After coloring it, I went over the lines again with a fine tipped Micron pen.  For the corners, I used a gold gel pen and a swirl pattern from the Giant Spiral Card template from Hot Off The Press.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Christmas Ornament Card With String Art

A couple weeks ago, I went into a card making frenzy, mainly because my cousin talked me into attempting to sell my cards at a bazaar.  That turned out to be a total bust.  It was the first year for the bazaar and we had a grand total of about 50 people who showed up.  On the bright side, I’m that much closer to having all my Christmas cards done!  Here is one design I came up with that goes together fairly quickly.

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Not wanting to make a whole bunch of identical cards, I came of with several variations so I wouldn’t get bored.  Here’s another one.

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I didn’t have a suitable banner die, so I improvised.  I made the banner using the same Nestabilities Labels 2 die that I used for the ornament background.  After making the first cut, I repositioned the die and ran it through again.  The shading is done with Tea Dye distress ink.

I made the ornament with a Cuttlebug  ornament die and cut the centers out using different shaped Nestabilities dies (oval and scalloped oval shown here).  The Cuttlebug die has been discontinued, but I think the Nestabilities Heirloom Ornament would work.

I used a Nestabilities scalloped oval die to cut the shapes for the string art, and centered them under the ornament cut-out.  If you use a round opening, you can also use the Nestabilities pinked circles for the string art.  Here’s one I made using the Blossom die for the opening and the pinked circle for the string art.

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Monday, October 1, 2012

Christmas Dancer

The Yahoo iris folding group that I joined several years ago has recently become quite active (Yay!).  Each month we have the opportunity to sign up for a swap, or “Mingle.”  This swap is a little different from any other I have joined because you don’t get to find out what you are making until after you’ve signed up.  This adds to the challenge and the fun!  Last month’s pattern was a dancer.  Since I had started working on my Christmas cards, I decided to give the card a Christmas theme.

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The background is metallic champagne colored card stock from DCWV.  After cutting the aperture from the background, I ran it through my Cuttlebug using the D’Vine Swirl folder.  I then sanded the swirls so the white core shows through. 

The dancer’s skirt and blouse as well as the red frame and background are all out of giftwrap.  I usually don’t use giftwrap for background paper, but I wanted to use the same colors in the border as I did for the iris folding.  I embossed the JOY stamped image with Red Tinsel embossing powder and I made the label using the Layered Labels template from PaperWishes.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Kid Craft - Leaf Rubbings

Since I teach a couple children’s Bible classes each week, and those classes frequently involve doing something crafty, I decided to start including some of our creations in my blog. 

This morning’s craft was leaf rubbings with a bit of a twist.  The leaf rubbings I’ve seen in the past were all done under a single sheet of paper.  I found that you get a more realistic looking leaf by doing the rubbing on construction paper and cutting it out.

This craft is best for kids over 6.  Younger children can do it, but they don’t quite understand that you have to keep the crayon on its side.  I had an eight year old girl, a nine year old by and a three year old girl this morning.  This kept the older two busy for more than a half hour.  The three year old lost interest after about 10 minutes.

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You will need:

  • Lots of leaves from different kinds of trees
  • Scraps of construction paper in fall colors.  The scraps should be a little larger than the leaves.
  • crayons in fall colors
  • tape
  • glue
  • white paper for the background.  The verse I used is Daniel 2:20, 21a
  • 9 x 12 Construction paper to mat the finished picture.

Instructions:

  • Tape a leaf to a scrap of construction paper (the construction paper should be bigger than the leaf).  This will keep it from moving around.  You don’t have to use a lot of tape, just a couple small pieces should be fine.  Make sure you tape the leaf so that the side with the veins is against the paper.
  • Flip the paper over so the leaf is underneath it. 
  • Lay a crayon flat on its side and rub it over the paper with the leaf under it.  As you color, the veins and edges of the leaf will show up.
  • Remove the leaf from the back of the paper and cut your colored leaf out. 
  • Crumple the paper leaf up, then flatten it out. 
  • Repeat until you have seven or eight leaves
  • Glue the leaves to the background paper.  I find it looks more realistic if you only put glue down the center of the leaf and leave the outer edges unattached.
  • Mat your leaf picture on a piece of construction paper.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Wishing you Peace Love and Joy

I really, really dislike tossing plastic packaging in the trash so I was trying to figure out what I could make with it today.  I put a piece of it in an embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug and found that it embosses quite nicely.  I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I grabbed a blue permanent marker (cheap Sharpie knock-off), flipped the embossed piece over and started coloring in the de-bossed areas.  After doing that, I took a piece of paper towel that I had soaked with 91% alcohol and wiped most of the ink off (the trick here, is that it has to be a fairly high percentage of alcohol, the weaker stuff doesn’t work). That left lightly colored snowflakes that showed up nicely against a white background.  Here’s the card that came out of my little experiment.

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I like how there are snowflakes in front of and behind the tree in the window. 

Here’s the inside. For the sky, I embossed a piece of white-core dark blue card stock and sanded the snowflakes after embossing.  I really like the way it turned out.  The trees are made with white glitter card stock and didn’t scan well.  They look quite a bit better in real life.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Iris Fold Purse Card

I made this iris fold purse card for a challenge at the Yahoo Iris Folding group I belong to (and I won!). The pattern is a modification of a pattern made by Jannie. If you would like a copy of the iris folding pattern and purse template, you can join the Iris Folding group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IrisFolding.

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Supplies

  • Cellophane tape
  • Glue stick
  • Iris Folding - 24 Perforated Papers (Search Press)
  • Funky flowers blue brad
  • Red glimmer card stock
  • Yellow scrapbook paper
  • Scissors
  • Birthday Greetings Stamp Set (HOTP)
  • Perfect Medium stamp pad (Ranger)
  • Red Tinsel embossing powder (Stampendous)
  • Walnut Stain distress ink (Ranger)
  • Stacked Daisy Dazzles - Red (HOTP)
  • Design Tool Kit 1 (HOTP)
  • Craft knife

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Get Well Card with Sunflower

Here’s a pretty sunflower to help cheer someone who’s under the weather.  This is a super-fast card to put together.  The only thing that is hand-cut is the label and you could use a die cut for that as well.

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Supplies

  • Spellbinders Nestabilities Petite Scalloped Circles Large
  • Spellbinders Nestabilities Petite Scalloped Circles Small
  • Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sunflower Set Two
  • Brown card stock
  • Scrapbook paper in various colors
  • Expressions Stamp Set (HOTP)
  • Brown Stamp Pad (Whispers)
  • Layered Labels Template (HOTP)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Rectangle Tea Bag Tiles

As I was organizing my computer files the other day, I ran across this picture of a medallion I made several years ago using rectangular tiles.

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I really like this medallion, it reminds me of a snowflake.  I hunted and hunted but was unable to find the folding instructions, so I spent the next few hours trying to figure it out based on the picture.  After much frustration, I finally succeeded!  You can find the instructions on my website here: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/snowflake.php

Of course, after figuring out how to fold the tiles, I had to make a card.  I’ve been needing a lot of get well cards lately, so that’s what I decided to make.  Here’s what I came up with:

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You can find the supplies list as well as complete instructions for making this card HERE.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Altered Playing Cards

A few weeks ago, I attended my uncle’s 88th birthday party.  As with nearly all of the family gatherings on my Dad’s side, we spent a lot of time reminiscing about the good old days and going through scrapbooks.  One of the things my aunt and cousin have started to do is trade altered playing cards.  It looked like a lot of fun, so I asked if I could join in.  A couple weeks later I received my first APC from my aunt.  She decorates both sides of the card.  I don’t know anything about APCs so I don’t know if that’s the way they’re always done.  Here’s what she sent:

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Very cool!

A week later I had an unplanned surgery and I received another APC from her.  This one has one of my favorite cartoon characters on it:

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Cute, huh?

So, I decided it was high time I sat down and made my first APCs.  As usual, I made them first THEN got the idea to look on the internet to see what other people are doing.  Oops! mine are definitely different than most.  For one, I didn’t have any ephemera (gasp!) so I made do with what I had on hand.  I’ll get some for the next set.  Ephemera seems to be a big thing with APCs.  Here’s what I ended up with.  I made two.  One for my Aunt and one for my cousin.  The theme is Summer.

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The watermelon is made from red, light green and dark green cardstock.  I made the pitcher and glass with shrink plastic.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

June Color Challenge

This month’s color challenge at Just Cards is to make a card with hot pink, lime green, orange and bright blue. The challenge is open until midnight, June 9.  Come join in the fun! 

Here is the card I made for an example.

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I made the flower pot, tag and leaves using the Playful Pockets template from Hot Off The Press.  I made the flowers using one of my old Coluzzle templates.  The Happy Birthday greeting is a Dazzle peel-off.  I sponged the background using Peeled Paint and Spun Glass distress ink.

Monday, June 4, 2012

First Zentangle Card

The criteria for the June swap at Paper Wishes is to make a card with only one layer, minimal embellishments, only two colors and at least two stamps.  I was stumped at first and then I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to practice Tangling.  What I came up with is really a hybrid, since it's not entirely hand drawn.  I did, after all, need to use stamps.

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All of the plants and the greeting are stamped.  Everything else is drawn.  I used my 15 Butterflies and Dragonflies and my 15 Lovely Labels templates to draw the butterfly and label outlines.   I definitely need to work on my shading technique, but I do like the way the butterfly pops off the card, so I must’ve done something right. This was a really fun card to make, but was also very time consuming.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Button Flower with Handmade Paper

This week’s challenge at Just Cards is to make a card using at least one button.  This is a really simple challenge so if you’ve never done one before, come over and play.  We promise we won’t bite! 

Here is one of the examples I posted:

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Except for the label and the borders, it is all made from handmade papers.  When I was cleaning my craft room the other day, I discovered a huge stack of handmade papers in a rainbow of colors, so naturally I had to make something with them.

The label is from the 15 Lovely Labels template from Hot Off The Press and the flowers are from one of my old Coluzzle templates.  The button is from a stash I’ve had for years.  I cut the shank off of it so it would lay flat on the card and stuck it on with a glue dot.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Zentangle

Huh?  What’s that?  It’s doodling on steroids, that’s what it is, and I think I'm hooked.  I saw some Zentangles on a Paper Wishes webisode a while back and the technique looked like fun, so I bought a book on it called Totally Tangled.  After reading the first couple of pages and looking at some examples, I could hardly wait to give it a try.  Typically, you’d start out with black and white, but not wanting to be typical, I went straight to coloring mine with Copic markers.

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This is the first one I’ve finished and it’s based on one of the designs in the book.  I have another half done one on my desk that’s black and white and will probably stay that way.  Oh, and there are a few more that I did while sitting through one of our ever-so-interesting staff meetings last week, but they were just for practice and are on lined paper, so they don’t count.

It’s really much easier to do than it looks.  My main challenge is my lousy eyesight.  I drew most of this with my nose about six inches from the paper.  That makes for a very stiff neck!  I guess it’s time for some new glasses.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Cut and Fold With Noted Paper Pack from HOTP

I’ve been in cut and fold mode lately.  It’s partly due to the two new double sided paper packs from Hot Off The Press (Kaleidoscope and Noted), and partly due to Papers and Pixels magazine asking me to write an article for their June issue (more on that in a later post).  It also helped that one of the requirements for the May Designer Challenge over at Paper Wishes was that we use the Noted paper pack in a way that shows off both sides of the paper.  With that in mind, I set out to make some new cut and fold templates.

Here’s my first entry:

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I stamped the background with the small fern stamp.  All of the papers are from the Noted pack and the label is from the 15 lovely labels template.  The cut and fold template for this card will be available in the June Papers and Pixels magazine.

After making that card, I decided to make another. One of the stamps to choose from for the challenge was the Bicycle stamp.  My original plan was to create a template that looked like the sun and just use half the template with the bicycle in the foreground and say something about riding off into the sunset.  After I got done with the prototype, I changed my mind and came up with this layout instead. 

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The cut and fold template will be available from my website (www.handcraftedgreetigns.com) soon.

Friday, April 13, 2012

With Heartfelt Sympathy

Here is my second (and winning) entry in the PaperWishes March designer challenge.  This is the first time I’ve won a competition in years.

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Here is the inside of the card.

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You can read more about this card on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00241

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Memories

This is the first of three of my entries in the March Paper Wishes Designer challenge.  The requirements were that we use the 3D flowers template and the Sunshine and Shadows paper pack and the 4” doilies. The lilies on the template had seven petals, but I didn’t think they looked much like lilies, so I removed a couple.  I like them better this way.

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Of course, the down side is they won’t go into a regular envelope.  I had to make a box for this card.

Here’s the inside.

 

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You can read more about this card on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00243

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A Little Birdie Told Me…

Oh, such a cute little birdie singing his heart out on the front of this card.

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If only he knew what lurked inside!

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I made this card for the February Designer challenge at Paper wishes.  The verse is from an old birthday card I received from a friend.  You can find the paper piecing pattern for the bird and the cat on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00239

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Retirement Card

I haven’t done any Lacé for a while.  I don’t know why.  It’s not all that difficult and is so pretty!  I made this card for the lunch lady at work who retired.  She is such a sweetheart.  I wanted to make something special.

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You can’t find Lacé templates anymore, but a new company is making them and they’re called GEO-Dies. They even make some that you can put through your die cutter.

More information about this card including a supply list can be found on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00238

Monday, April 9, 2012

Hold Your Horses!

This envelope and tag was inspired by a sketch challenge over at Just Cards.  The envelope is a business envelope sealed, an then cut to the right size for the tag.  I used the ghosting technique to stamp the running horses on the background.  I just love this stamp set from Stampin’ Up!

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Here are the tags from inside the envelope. 

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You can view the supply list and read more about how I made this envelope and tags on my website at:  http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00234

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Cedars of Lebanon Quilt Block Card

Here’s another card based on a quilt block.  I made this one with paper from Paper Wishes.  I just love the bright colors!

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The technique for this card is a cross between iris folding and paper weaving.  the green squares were rather tricky to do.  You can find the pattern and instructions for this card on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00232.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Ghost Stamping

Well! More than a month has passed since my last post.  Time flies!  I have been making cards, I just haven’t had time to post them!  Here is a technique I learned last month.  It’s called ghosting. it’s similar to the emboss-resist technique, but there’s no embossing and the effect is much more subtle. You can find the instructions for it on Nancy’s Creative Space.

Here’s the card I made with this technique. 

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The butterflies on the left and right are ghosted.  You can find the supply list for this card on my website at http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00233

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pineapple Blossom Quilt Block Card

I made this card for a Birthday card swap at PaperWishes.  When my swap partner said she wanted a card for someone who quilts, I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  I’ve had a pineapple blossom quilt block pattern for years, but hadn’t gotten around to converting it into a template for card making, so I dug it out and here’s what I came up with.

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You can find the pattern and instructions for it on my website at http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisfoldinst.php

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Tri-Shutter Card

I have admired several tri-shutter cards over the past few weeks, so when I saw a Tri-Shutter swap on JustCards, I just had to give it a try.  This card was made with papers from the Chocolate Dipped Artful Card Kit.

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I made the butterfly using the 15 Butterflies and Dragonflies template and painted it with Smooch Ink.  You can find instructions for making your own tri-shutter card at Splitcoast Stampers.   The list of supplies I used to make this card is located on handcraftedgreetings.com

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Little of This and a Little of That

I made this card for the January week 5 challenge at PaperWishes.  The challenge was to combine all four of the previous challenge criteria which were:

  • Colors: Lime and Chocolate
  • Use the week 2 sketch
  • Use the mosaic technique somewhere on the card
  • Use a punch or die cuts.

Here’s my entry.

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The rose stamp is from Hot Off The Press Noteworthy stamp set.  I colored it with Copics.  This is my first time using them without the airbrush. I’m really pleased with the results.  I must buy more!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Meow, You’re 2

My middle granddaughter turned two last Thursday.  She LOVES cats, so I made her this card with a momma cat and kitten…brennabday20120123

The cat and kitten pattern came from 202 Paper Piecing Patterns by Annie Lang.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Parchment and Butterfly

Back to butterflies!  Here is another butterfly made from the 15 Butterflies and Dragonflies template.  I colored it with Smooch inks. The parchment work is a modification of a pattern from Pergamano’s Parchment Perforating Kit.

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I got the inspiration for this card from PaperWishes’ January 27th Friday Freebies e-mail.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Z-Fold Valentine

Today’s card was inspired by the January 25 Creative Spark e-mail from Paper Wishes.  Rather than use the pattern supplied, I came up with my own modification which I posted on the Paper Wishes forum.

Here’s the front of the card…

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… and the inside panels.

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Except for the doilies, the papers are all from PaperWishes.  The stickers are from the Mix ‘ems Heart pack.  I don’t have very many stamps from PaperWishes yet so those are from a Valentine set I bought years ago. The labels are from the Layered Labels template.  I found the Forever Friend poem on scrapbook.com.  I tried to use fonts that matched the attributes in the poem.  That was quite a challenge!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Airbrushed Butterflies

Here is another air-brushed card.  Butterflies, of course!  I’ve had this particular stencil for years, but hadn’t used it much. The flowers across the bottom are from the Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities set.

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After I finished airbrushing the butterflies, I removed the stencil and airbrushed the background lightly with sky blue.  The butterflies across the center are from Martha Stewart’s Butterflies border punch.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Butterfly and Flowers

See? I warned you!  I am definitely in butterfly mode!  This card is the result of this week’s sketch challenge at Just Cards.  I really had no idea what I was going to do for this one.  I started by going through my stack of card blanks and grabbing the color I like least.  After I selected it, I realized that the marbled paper I made earlier this week would go very well with it.

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Since the paper had turquoise in it, I decided that turquoise would be my secondary color.  My third color, yellow, is also in the background paper.  I made the butterfly as an experiment.  the gold outline is a left-over from a butterfly dazzle.  I stuck it onto a piece of cardstock and painted it with Smooch ink. I really hadn’t intended to use it on this card, until I realized that it had both orange and blue in it.  The 3D flower stickers are from a package I’ve had for a couple years.