Magic of a New Day

My son sent me this picture several months ago. He actually took it of himself (not quite sure HOW . . . just know he has some thingy called a Gorillapod that holds his camera for him!). I think it is amazing, so I am sending it back to him, via a butterfly card. This makes card #67 in my "Follow the Butterflies" challenge (there is a link to the right of this post if you have no clue what I a talking about!).

It's pretty simple and straight forward, but it makes me happy!



Stamps: Sentiment from Word Collection by Stamp Oasis, Stampendous Butterflies
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Black Stazon, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Bashful Blue, Old Olive
Accessories: NONE (can you believe it???)

Spooky Butterflies??

Here I come again with ANOTHER butterfly card! Butterflies for Halloween??? You bet!! Especially if you needed a Halloween butterfly card for some crazy, self-imposed challenge!

I was channelling all sorts of sources for this card, which I did for WT189. I got the web idea a couple of years ago from Jeanne S and this card (the whole darn card rocks!):

Jeanne's Card

I did the sunset sky thing as a tribute to Michelle (Zindorf). She does in infinitely better than me, but I like the idea, nonetheless.

And of course, I did a similar layout, turned the other way, last year. So I cased my own self!

It is hard to tell from the photo, but the drippy goo is actually where the front edge of the card ends. The spiders and the saffron piece of cardstock are actually on the inside of the card.

This card also evokes the beginnings of the whole butterfly challenge. It started out with a Ron Weasley card. Remember the quote from the Harry Potter movie (Chamber of Secrets)? "Follow the spiders??? Why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?????" So we got both spiders AND butterflies in this one. A goofy Halloween card, to be sure!

Stamps: Arachnophobia Wheel, Best Fiends (sentiment), Butterflies by Stampendous
Paper: Basic Black, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Lovely Lilac, Night of Navy
Accessories: black twine, large and small oval punches, CM circle cutter, Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch, pop-up glue dots, sponge, brayer

Where Did It Go??

I honestly can't believe that summer is nearly OVER!! The kids start school two weeks from today. YIKES!! This has been, without a doubt, the fastest, most crazy, and most travelled summer I have EVER experienced!! What an absolute tornado!!! But, I digress . . .

I tried something totally new yesterday. For TLC181, the challenge was to do a "stained glass" front on your creation. Truth be told I didn't have all the proper "tools" for the job. What???? Can that be right???? Actually, the technique calls for you to stamp an image in StazOn ink (which I do have) onto a piece of acetate (also had that!). Then, using a few drops of Crystal Effects mixed with a little reinker (colors of your choice!), you "paint" the back of the acetate with your new concoction, filling in the lines and creating a beautiful stained glass window. Although I DO have some Crystal Effects, the substance in the bottle was kinda yellow and super thick, so it wasn't going to work for me!! I ended up cheating a bit and using my Copics to color the image in.

I placed a HUGE order with Stampin' Up yesterday, as it was the first day we were allowed to order from the new Fall/Winter catalog (can anyone say $$$???)!! I actually DID remember to order myself some new CE, so I need to try this technique again!!

I love using my Nestabilities to create a "frame." I do it quite often, but not usually with one this big. Makes a great window, don't you think? I placed the pink mat behind the acetate, so you can actually see more of the image that way. And, I borrowed a cute little idea from Nichole Heady of Papertrey . . . I stamped a row of polka dots and bordered it, top and bottom, with a couple of little score lines using my ever-trusty Scor-Pal. Cute, eh? For those who are counting, this makes "Follow the Butterflies" challenge card #51 (see link at right for more info).

I'm off to Girl's Camp a little later today, and won't be back 'til Friday afternoon. I'll post something new then!

Stamps: Doodlewings by Stampendous, Polka Dot Basics by Papertrey
Paper: Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Pixie Pink, Acetate
Ink: Black Stazon, Whisper White, various Copic markers
Accessories: Nestabiliites scallop rectangle, Three for You punch, white brads, pink gingham ribbon by Offray, Scor-Pal

Caught Another Butterfly!

I'm trying to "catch up" for all of the days that passed over the last two weeks where I DIDN'T post a card. Here is card #38 in my "Follow the Butterflies" challenge (see the sidebar for a link to more info, or the slideshow of butterfly cards already done!)

I saw the GREATEST card on Lauren Meader's blog last week . . . so I decided to do my own take on it. I should just leave this one to her, as hers totally rocked the SOCKS off of mine!! I did this for CC166, again trying to step out of my "color box" . . . not sure I love the results, but I DO love Lauren's idea, and plan to try it again soon when I can spend more time making it fabulous! Here is a link to her card:

Lauren's Card

You can see from her photo how the card is folded up from the bottom, and then the butterfly is cut (using an Xacto or craft blade) just around the top edge to make it look almost 3-dimensional.

I also pulled out my reinkers and blender pens to make this work with TLC168 - watercoloring AND heat embossing.

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Butterflies (Stampendous), In the Stars (sentimet)
Paper: Ruby Red, Shimmery White, Soft Sky
Ink: Basic Black craft and classic, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky
Accessories: Rustic Retreat ribbon, iridescent ice embossing powder, notched corner punch, glue dots, exacto razor

Holy Spellbinders, Batman!!!

Happy Saturday, everyone! I am posting this from Sunny Arizona (which is actually still quite dark as it is only 6:00 a.m.!!). I am just about ready to begin day 4 of my retreat at Spellbinders' headquarters. For those of you who may have forgotten, I was recently chosen to be a member of the 2008 Design Team for Spellbinders, the makers of the Wizard (the most awesome, amazing and wonderful diecut/embossing machine!! I am now convinced there is almost NOTHING that baby can't do!! This next year is going to be sooo awesome, and I'm going to be stretching my creative wings more than I could ever have imagined! You are DEFINITELY going to be seeing a lot of new things here over the next several months. We didn't make anything that I can show you yet (as virtually all of what we have been doing here is learning how to run the machine and do cool techniques with it), but I can assure you, excellent things are on the horizon. AND, Spellbinders has been busy working with a TON of vendors, who have agreed to be "partner" companies with them over the next year. Which means, I have a MOUNTAIN of new product to play with, as many of these companies have graciously provided us with things to play with!! I'll take a picture once I get home so y'all can see what we got an drool a bit - I know I'm totally in drool mode myself!!

Needless to say, I have only done a couple of cards in the last week (both of which, surprise!, have butterflies on them!!) before coming to Arizona. This first one I made as art of a swap I signed up for (HELLO fellow Control Freaks!!), using a set from the SU Preview Mini (actually, I featured one of the new hostess sets - Cause for Celebration - AND a great new sentiment set called Celebrate Everything). I also used a color combo that SU has featured in the new catty and I love it!! It's Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa (these colors are all featured in the new Berry Bliss designer series paper - can't WAIT to get my hands on some of that stuff!!) Since I had to make about 30 of these babies, I have had little time to make anything else, especially since I was trying to get ready to get outta town!

Stamps: Cause for Celebration, Celebrate Everything
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate

In my rush to get packed and out the door on Wednesday, I got up at 3:30 (as in A.M.)!!! Couldn't sleep, anyway. I needed to get another card out for my son (see the "Follow the Butterflies" link on the sidebar here for more details). I have been thinking about this card for weeks, and decided I needed to take a stab at it. While I was in Phoenix LAST month, I found some really fun acetate (12 x 12!) that was covered with lots of sheet music. I used it as an overlay for the butterflies on this one. Since my son is a music FANATIC (he LOVES all choral music, plus he sings beautifully and plays the piano!), I thought he would enjoy this card.

Stamps: Butterflies (Stampendous), Elegant Notes
Cardstock: Handsome Hunter, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, Music Acetate (not sure who makes it)
Ink: Handsome Hunter, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron

Hope everyone has a great day! I know I'm going to! We're off to play some more. I'll post some pictures of all the fun we are having when I get back home!