Butterflies and Badgers

I'm back from short weekend trip to Madison, Wisconsin. Yes, unlike most people, I headed north for my "spring break," choosing to visit my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I spent a busy weekend with my dad, checking out old favorite places on the campus and attending three college hockey games in two days. And thanks to Blogger's new (draft) scheduled posting feature, you probably didn't even notice that I was missing.

Fortunately for us, the Wisconsin weather was beautiful until we left this morning and most of the snow that had fallen in Madison this winter was nowhere to be found. The lake, however, was still completely frozen. I took this picture from behind the student union building. I lived in an apartment in the tall building you see on the right in this picture, so I looked out my window at that lake many, many times--and it usually wasn't still frozen solid come April 1. If you want to read more about my trip and see some fun photos (I know I have a few readers who are hockey fans like me--right, Dawn???), be sure to read to the end of this post. And, if not, I do have two cards to share with you today.

Both of these cards use the same butterfly image from Starving Artistamps, but they have a totally different look and feel.

This first one features the Joseph's coat technique. I brayered ink from a brightly colored Spectrum ink pad for the bottom layer here, then heat embossed the butterfly images before covering the panel with black ink. Since the butterflies are bright, I added a simple sentiment and a simple embellishment to finish the card. The flower embellishment is another one of those shimmery paper flowers, again colored with Copic markers. I added a small green rhinestone brad to the center of the card to match the ribbon around the butterfly panel and pull in some of the color from the images.

Materials Used:

butterfly image (p5.6)and sentiment (46.08) (Starving Artistamps); Spectrum ink pad; Lovely Lilac and Basic Black Classic ink, Lovely Lilac, Gable Green and Gloossy White cardstock, scalloped circle punch, brayer, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); shimmery flower confetti, green stitched grosgrain ribbon (Michaels); green rhinestone brad (Making Memories)

This one is a clean and simple way to showcase the butterfly image. Here, I stamped the butterfly in Versamark on white vellum. I heat embossed the image with black embossing powder. To color the butterfly, I used an aquapainter filled with rubbing alcohol and some dye reinkers. The alcohol evaporated almost immediately, so the image didn't warp too much as it dried. And, the subtle warping actually makes the cut out image look like a butterfly in flight. I used a pop up glue dot to attach the butterfly to the scalloped circle.

I used a corner rounder to round the edges of the olive panel on the cardfront and the edges of the card to go with the scalloped circle and rounded butterfly wings.

Materials Used:

butterfly (p5.6) and pretty background images (Starving Artistamps); Old Olive Classic ink, Versamark, Cranberry Crisp, Old Olive, and Sahara Sand cardstock, white vellum, black embossing powder, aquapainter, Cranberry Crisp reinker, glue dot, corner rounder (Stampin' Up!); olive green grosgrain ribbon (AC Moore); copper brads (Making Memories); scalloped circle die (Nestabilities)

If you're still with me, here's a little more about my trip (and me, too). People who know me well know that I am a huge hockey fan and that I'm especially interested in college hockey. The reason for the trip was that the University of Wisconsin-Madison was the one of the host sites the early rounds of this year's NCAA college hockey tournament and the Wisconsin Badger hockey team was going to play at home in the tournament. I've never seen them play at the Kohl Center (it was built after I left), so this was a great opportunity for me to see the team play there.

We had seats right behind the penalty box--and when I say right behind, I mean close enough that my knees could touch the glass. In fact, they were probably on TV during shots of the players in the penalty box. I'll have to watch my TiVo to check that out, I guess. I've never sat in seats there before, so that was fun and different. I took this photo during last night's game just as a penalty to one of the Badger players was about to expire. The guy in this picture was the third (I think) player selected in the National Hockey League's draft last summer and just today signed a contract to play professional hockey. Wow! That's one of the things I really like about college hockey--you get to see the game's future "stars" before they become stars. I know there were a few players in the games I saw this weekend that I'll see playing pro hockey in the not so distant future.

As far as the games, the UW hockey team played really well and won big on Saturday night, but unfortunately was defeated in overtime on Sunday night after putting up a good fight. I'm still recovering from my disappointment that they didn't make the "Frozen Four," which is the catchy name for the college hockey version of the Final Four. But, I am already looking forward to next year when the Frozen Four will be right in my own backyard at Washington, DC's Verizon Center. I'm hoping that the Badgers will make it next year so I can cheer them on from my hometown.

So, tomorrow it's back to work and my regular schedule. I'll be back with some new creations to share then.