A Butterfly and a Bird

I got some new stamps this week and they've been sitting uninked for several days. I decided to try them out last night before I put them away. I made this card for this week's Viva la Verve challenge. Along with following the sketch, the challenge this week was to make your card a birthday card.

I used the large butterfly image from Verve's new Beautiful Kindness set for the image panel. The butterfly is colored with Copic markers and painted with a coating of Angel Wings Shimmerz. I added a vellum overlay to make the butterfly look three dimensional.

I'm not too good at mixing and matching patterned papers, so coming up with the trio of papers on the cardfront was a little challenging for me. I started with the floral patterned paper on the left side of the card, then looked through my collection to find coordinating papers with less bold patterns. I think it worked out okay in the end.

I tied a piece of coordinating light blue seam binding tape around the cardfront, then layered the butterfly image on top. I purposely picked a light colored patterned paper for the top right side of the card so I could stamp the sentiment right on the paper. I used Riding Hood Red ink and Verve's new Circular Sayings set to do that.

Materials Used:

Beautiful Kindness and Circular Sayings stamp sets (Verve Stamps); white Choice Cardstock (Taylored Expressions); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic Ciao); Riding Hood Red Classic ink, Riding Hood Red and Soft Sky cardstock, vellum, Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi Prints designer series paper (Stampin' Up!); blue seam binding tape (Martha Stewart); Angel Wings paint (Shimmerz); green self-adhesive rhinestones (Joann); flowered patterned paper (K & Company)

This card is for this week's Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge sketch. It's made with images from the new Leave a Lasting Impression line at Taylored Expressions. I don't know what it is, but lately, I've been adding tons of tree images to my collection . . .

Here, I stamped one of the branch images on a square of Taylor's white Choice Cardstock. I colored the image with Copic markers--they work really nicely with this paper! I stamped the nest and bird images on a scrap of paper and cut them out. I used a craft knife to cut a small slit in the nest and set the bird inside the slit, then attached the pair to the card. It's hard to see in the photo, but I added one of Taylor's Tiny Twinkles to the bird's eye as a fun detail. I used a stipple brush to add the soft blue sky to the panel.

I used some papers from SEI's Dill Blossom collection for the striped panel on the cardfront, the circle, and the scalloped strip. I put in a few red elements (ribbon, mat under the image) to pull in a little more red. Everything is arranged on a kraft cardbase to go along with the earthy look and feel of the images and papers.

Materials Used:

Branching Out and Branching Out Coordinates stamp sets, white Choice Cardstock, Tiny Twinkle (Taylored Expressions); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic Ciao); Riding Hood Red and Cool Caribbean Classic inks, Riding Hood Red and Kraft cardstock, Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch, stipple brush, dimensional (Stampin' Up!); patterned and textured cardstock (SEI's Dill Blossom collection); circle die (Nestabilities)