Sending Love

and lots of butterflies

TUTORIALSTENCIL

8/8/20233 min read

Elevate Your Cardmaking with Innovative Techniques and Design Styles

from a gel print that I couldn't decide what to do with , to a multi+-media card to share with a friend. That's what I call a good day.

Let’s Get Started:

Card Base: 5.5 x 8.5, scored and folded at 4.25

Card Face: 5.5 x 4

Small Scrap of Cardstock for heart



Card Face:

  • I started off with a gel print that I had already played with, added some stamping and a bit of stencilling. I really liked the print, but it had been sitting for a while because I couldn't decide how to use it. Then suddenly I knew that it was perfect for these butterflies, which are all created with a large die and a single pass through the Big Shot.

  • I decided to use kraft cardstock for the card face, as I felt the boho look of the die cut would work well against that background

  • I took the card face and stamped it with a stone wall background stamp in a dark(ish) blue ink. I added a few other stamps to the wall, to make it look like grafitti. I also added metallic wax in copper and bronze, just adding small "swipes" here and there.

  • I experimented a bit with the butterflies, to decide how I wanted to position them on the card face.

  • Then I grabbed the die that I had used to create the butterfly die cut and a silicone mat. I secured the die on the card face, laid the paper on top of the silicone mat and ran it through the Big Shot : because the silicone mat was in place, this pressed the die into the paper, but it didn't cut through . I had a debossed image of the butterflies : when I glued the die cut in place on top of this it allowed them to sit down into the paper, and look like a vibrant painting on the wall rather that being a separate layer on top.

  • I added some of the gold wax onto the center of each butterfly, and randomly onto the wings as well. I had started out with a piece of paper towel for this, but quickly decided to just use my fingers so I could control it better - a little goes a loooong way.

  • I distressed the edges in several spots, and then added gold embossing powder along the left hand edge. It doesn't show well in the image, but it adds a nice bit of shine in real life.

  • I finished up by adding a very fine white spatter .

Other:

I used gold embossing powder to create a tiny heart on white, and then cut it out with a 1" circle die.

Assembly:

I glued the card face to the card base, aligning tight to the right hand side.

I added a bit of foam dimensional tape to the back of the circle, and put it in place as shown.

Final Thoughts:

My initial plan for the left hand edge was to have a thin strip of metallic gold cardstock peeking out, but I changed my mind and added the gold embossing powder. This is a softer look, and it works better with this card. It's pure fun mixing and matching various materials on a card - at least when it turns out nicely, LOL. I do love to play around and see what happens during the process.

I'm really happy with the end result.

Supplies: (and links where possible)

I have listed which products I have used, and where they were purchased. It's a huge marketplace and in most instances there are multiple sources and many alternatives to choose from.


Butterfly Die: Beauty Abounds, Stampin' Up! (retired)

Ink: Stampin’ Up!

Metallic Wax, Bronze and Gold: Momenta, Amazon (not currently available)

Embossing Pen,, Ranger, Amazon

Gold Embossing Powder, Stampin' Up!

White Spatter, Dr Ph Martin's Bleed Proof White, Taylored Expressions

Adhesive: Tombow Aqua, Michaels

Card Base: Accent 100 lb., Amazon:

Card Face: Kraft cardstock, Stampin' Up! (retired)