Butterfly Birthday Card

Last night, I watched a really enjoyable You Tube video by a talented mixed media artist, Cat Hand, called Mixed Media Collage - Leaves and Bird...so relaxed, creative and inspiring to watch. Well, this card was the output from my mind noodling on some of her techniques, and the fact that I just stopped in again at Tuesday Morning and picked up some goodies. So, here I go again, wanting to play with my new discounted toys, white and turquoise Heidi Swapp metallic pastes, a Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists 5 pack and a bunch of Heidi Swapp stencils.

I began by cutting a piece of Canson Watercolor paper. I pulled out a freebie butterfly I picked up in a grab bag (I was very intimidated by it when I first got it in December...I guess I’ve come a ways since then). It’s from a Unity SMAK kit from 9/17. I pulled out a Turquoise mist spray and a peach colored spray and the stencils. I began by holding the butterfly stencil offset on the paper and spraying around the stencil. I dried that and then took the negative stencil and and sprayed the butterfly image. After that dried I used a gray archival ink and stamped the butterfly in the center of the image. I then used a background receipt stamp from the March 2018 SMAK kit and stamped all around the butterfly using the gray ink. I took the patterned dots stamp from the same kit and inked it with red and blue oxides and filled in areas. I noticed in the video you can mute harsh transitions with white gesso, so I mixed a little turquoise paste with the gesso so it wasn’t stark white and painted the areas between the stencilled butterfly edges and the Unity stamp. Once that dried, I took the white metallic paste and the remaining stencil and, using a palette knife, added scallop like raised areas. Finally, I used a Stazon blue to add small butterflies from the August 2017 KOTM. I also added some black dots here and there.

Turning to the butterfly, I grabbed the leftover watercolor paper and pulled out some oxide inks. In one of the pictures below, there’s scrap patterned paper I used somewhat for the color scheme. I took yellow, red and blue, one at a time and stamped the pad in a straight line, sprayed it with water and then dipped the paper first one side then the other to create similar lines on the paper. I dried in between colors, but they did mix a little. I then stamped the butterfly using a black Versafine ink and fussy cut it out. I used the leftover paper for the sentiment which came from the Happy kit. I used a silver paint pen on the edges of the sentiment and oxide on the hard edge.

To make the butterfly stand out, I pulled out pastel chalks and smugded black, then white, and finally turquoise around the edges. I also smudged a dark teal around the whole piece. I pulled a cream card base out, added silver paper strips to each side and used foam tape to add the base butterfly. Once mounted, I added a few smudges of the teal in the center of the fussy cut butterfly and affixed that and the sentiment to the card.

This was a lot of fun to create. I’m still learning what to add where, when to apply the paste, and how to enhance the primary image, but you never learn unless you keep trying. So, major issue...must have washed my hands 20 times, the craft mat 10, and I and my craft mat are still stained! Trying to keep clean is tough, another thing to learn, I guess! Well, till next time, happy crafting!