Butterfly Birthday Card

I recently bought a new set of stamps by Tim Holtz, "Flower Garden", which I used for the background of this card for a long time friend.  Her birthday was this past weekend - now I'm able to post the card here and not worry about ruining the surprise. LOL!

I decided to try a new-to-me technique - watercolouring with distress inks. For the base, I used Stampin' Up Ivory Natural paper. It has flecks of fibre in it, and is not quite as stiff as regular cardstock, almost like a thin watercolour paper. Then I stamped some of the chrysanthemum flowers and stems in Archival Black ink.  I patted the following distress inks on my silicone mat for my "palette", spritzed with water and painted - Scattered Straw. Wild Honey, Tea Dye, Spiced Marmalade, and Crushed Olive.  I masked off the flowers and overstamped with Tim's "Papillion" large background stamp in Archival coffee ink. The last step - spritzing some random dots with a spray tool and TH walnut stain marker.

Now I started the layering....I embossed the Just Rite verse on vellum with black EP, and trimmed the edge with fancy edge scissors. At first I used brown EP; however, it didn't stand out as well as the black. I cut a piece of lattice (Spellbinders shapeabilities die) sponging over with Antique Linen ink.  Added a piece of green satin vine ribbon by May Arts.

The butterfly is a Sizzix Bigz Texture Fades TH die, which has two butterflies and the matching embossing folder. I sponged Scattered Straw, Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy over the raised embossed areas, painting the dots on the top of the wings with white gel marker. Spritzed over the whole piece with Perfect Pearls spray "Biscotti" for a touch of sheen.The body is done with Finnibair "Pollen" micro beads. Also added antennae which I created with wire nose pliers.

Finished the card with some flowers I had in my stash, however I did sponge the edges with Spiced Marmalade ink.  All paper layers were distressed, and the outside edge of the vanilla cardstock was also sponged with Spiced Marmalade.

My friend is a horticulturalist, has her own landscaping business, and she has her own line of body creams made from local honey, "Naturally Nancy's". Here's a shout out to you Nancy. LOL

Spring is almost here in Nova Scotia. I took this pic on Saturday of a few of  my crocus poking through the snow in the garden by the back door. With the sun yesterday, they were in bloom, just in time for Easter. Lots more yet to come!


Sharon
March 28, 2016

Challenges:

Fashionable Stamping Challenge: #109 Butterflies

Butterfly Challenge: Butterfly + Margin

Allsorts Challenge:  Wings