Thursday, March 25, 2021

Creative Card-iology Team Monthly Blog Hop - Butterfly Brilliance

 


 
Welcome to the Creative Card-iology Team March Blog Hop!  We are so glad you joined us today as we celebrate butterflies in all their brilliance.  After celebrating with me here on my blog, I hope you'll let me know you've visited by leaving a comment and then check out my teammates' projects by clicking on the links to their blogs toward the bottom of this post.  

My post and project this month is as much (maybe more) about my creative process as the project itself.  Sometimes I start with a stamp set and decide on a card or project because I like the images in the set, but more often it starts with a story of some kind - whether it's a person to celebrate or encourage, a scene or picture I want to recreate, or a keepsake to help me remember something important.  Today's project is the latter - a keepsake to remind me of some truths I’m prone to forget.

This month’s blog hop focus on butterflies got me to thinking about the change that the caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly.  I don’t know about you, but I have always had a hard time adjusting to change.   And the last few years have been full of changes – especially this last year when the whole world shut down.  There were changes that I had no control over, and changes that I had control over but often found it hard to take action to break habits and thought patterns and create new rhythms.  I’ve had to learn that I have a choice in how I respond to change - I can get angry or depressed or I can embrace or lean into it and search for ways to grow stronger through it.



Even in the midst of creating my sampler, I had to change direction.  I had planned to use the limited edition Butterfly Bijou Designer Series Paper (DSP) that was so popular that it sold out with the Free Shipping special!  But that gave me the opportunity to create my own patterned paper using the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set and Misty Moonlight and Melon Mambo ink.  I used one of the gorgeous patterns from the Sand & Sea DSP collection to stamp on, and two other patterns from that collection along with Flirty Flamingo, Misty Moonlight, Seaside Spray, Basic White and Vellum cardstock completed my paper selections for my sampler.

To make my butterfly patterned paper, I cut a 3" x 6" pieces of the Sand & Sea paper.  I placed my stamp on the Stamparatus and used sponge daubers to sponge Misty Moonlight and Melon Mambo ink on the stamp.  I then stamped the butterflies onto the paper, reinking the stamp as needed until I was happy with it.

I repeated the sponging process and stamped the butterflies onto a piece of 6" x 6" vellum cardstock.  Using the coordinating die, I cut out the butterflies and colored the back of some of them with Stampin' Blends.  I also die cut coordinating detailed butterfly images from Misty Moonlight and Flirty Flamingo cardstock.  I adhered the detailed butterfles to the coordianting vellum butterflies using the Fine Tip Glue Pen to place glue along the body of each vellum butterfly and then set these aside to dry.  Opal Rounds were added to the head and body of some of the butterflies.  Stampin' Dimensionals were added to the back of these for later placement on my sampler.



After cutting a 3" x 6" piece of the blue pattern DSP from the Sand & Sea collection, I layered this piece on top of the patterned paper I had stamped and cut them in half with one of the dies from the Curvy Dies collection.

I drew images of a caterpillar and a cocoon, scanned them to my laptop and printed them out on white cardstock, along with Bible verses I wanted to remember.  I die cut these with ovals and circles from the Stitched Shapes collection.  I cut coordinating scalloped ovals and circles from Misty Moonlight using dies from the Layering Ovals and Layering Circles Dies,


I adhered a piece of Misty Moonlight cardstock to a piece of Foam Adhesive Sheet and then die cut my letters using the Playful Alphabet Dies.  Love the Foam Adhesive Sheets for this!  

A couple lengths of Misty Moonlight were added to my DSP layers, along with an extra length for a faux bow.  I adhered my butterlies, letters, and shapes to the DSP layers and each layer was matted onto Seaside Spray and Misty Moonlight cardstock layers, and finally all were adhered to a 12" x 12" sheet of Seaside Spray cardstock.

And now I have a beautiful keepsake to remind me that seeking to grow through changes in my life, while sometimes very challenging and painful, can result in something truly beautful!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  If you'd like to check out the products used for my project you can click on the links below or stop by my online shop here.

We'd love to have you join our team!  We have so much fun sharing and learning from each other!  You can find out more information about that here.

I'd love to connect with you through my newsletter and share inspiration, updates on what's happening with Stampin' Up! and information on any scheduled classes.  Just click here to fill out the form to opt in to my newsletter and receive a free tutorial as well!

Don't forget to visit my teammates' blogs by clicking on the links below.  We love reading your comments and feedback, so feel free to leave us a message and let us know you stopped by!




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