Poppies and butterflies

Do you have stash that you really like but tend to forget about? I have a pad of die cut lattice work panels which I'd forgotten all about until I saw that "Lattice" was one of the themes in the current Butterfly Challenge. 

I used a green patterned paper from my stash and some pre-cut printed floral and butterfly themed elements, finishing with some pink pearlised enamel dots to pick up the circle pattern on the topper. Quite a stash buster, this!

I am  sharing this with:

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge - April  

Butterfly Challenge - letter L (lawn green and lattice work) 

Guest Elf at Christmas Kickstart

 I'm delighted to be this month's Guest Elf at Christmas Kickstart - can you hear the bells jingling on my hat? 

This month's theme is You Sleigh Me, so it's all about sleighs and sledges. 

I've gone with an NBUS sleigh stamp from an old Raymond Briggs set, and one of my favourite festive colour combos, pale blue and kraft. 

I stamped it and coloured with alcohol markers then cut and embossed it using a label die and blended blue ink around the edges while the die cut was still in the die. I did the same with the words only blended the blue over the whole open area. 

The kraft background is embossed with a holly leaf folder and I finished it off with wooden snowflakes, bows and pearls.

I'm sharing this with 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Anything goes  

Jingle Belles - To Die For 

Pop-Out Swing Card

I saw this card fold in a recent craft mag and just had to try it right away. 

I thought the way the image pops into the aperture reminded me of Alice going down the rabbit hole, so of course these distress effect papers and images from the Polkadoodles CD "Winnie in Wonderland" were perfect for the job. Every time I use this CD, I realise that the more I look at the images and papers, the more of the little details I spot, all conjuring up memories of the book that, all through my childhood, was my second-favourite story (coming in a short head behind "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"). I lightly distressed the aperture and the edge of the swing panel, partly to go with the distress effect papers and partly to give a bit of traction which  helps to hold the panel at your chosen angle when the card is opened. 

I am sharing this with 

The Library Challenge - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes  

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - D for Distress 

Butterfly Bouquet

I need to start by hanging my head in shame. This card was intended for the last Snippets Challenge, but with a lot of real-life distractions claiming my attention, the snippets I was planning to use were still in a heap on my craft table when the Playground gates clanged shut on Saturday, and didn't even get cut until a day later. 

I selected a mixture of pink and green scraps and dies, cut them all and arranged to form a bouquet, with the butterfly replacing a more traditional bow. The background is made with one of my favourite embossing folders, it came from Crafter's Companion a few years ago. 

I am sharing this with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 400  

Little Red Wagon - Happy Birthday 

Watercooler Wednesday - All About Occasions 

Colour Hues - Pink and Green 

Guest Designer at Stamping Sensations

 I'm delighted to have been invited to be guest designer this month at Stamping Sensations.  The theme is Fantasy Worlds and/or Magical Scenes, and they want us to be creative. 

I decided the most magical world I can create is one using my encaustic waxes, so I dusted them off - it's a couple of years since I used them - for this card. 

First of all I stamped the silhouette fairy using Stazon ink on glossy encaustic paining card.  The ink needs to be Stazon in order to dry properly on the card, not smudge when the wax is applied and to show through the wax. I used the same ink to stamp a border of flowers and grasses, but you can't really see them because I added so much other detail! 

To make the encaustic design, I used clear wax in the centre of the iron and then purple and blue out towards the sides, then swooped the iron up the card at a slight angle to make it look as if the fairy is spotlighted by a moonbeam. Then I used a deep turquoise ink to create suction patterns along the bottom of the card. Finally I used the edge of the iron to pull up tapering lines of wax to look like ethereal plants. 

I polished the finished wax painting with a tissue then added glitter glue in purple and turquoise  to be magical fairy dust. 

If you would like to know more about encaustic painting, there are lots of videos on You Tube. I learned what I know, many years ago, from videos I found at Arts Encaustic - now called Encaustic.com   where I buy my papers and waxes. They have lots of tips, videos and a gallery full of inspiration on the site. 

I am sharing this with A Bit More Time to Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

Christmas Stag

 They say we could have snow on Monday - perfect Christmas card making weather! 

The beautiful wood-and-garland background paper was a gift from a friend. My main task was choosing something to pair with it that wouldn't detract from any of the lovely detail. 

I chose an NBUS stamp and stencil set that came with Creative Stamping magazine late last year. Once stamped and stencilled, I die cut the image and cold-foiled the edge. A few dots of Candi to balance the weight of the top border and the card was complete. 

I am sharing this with 

Addicted to Stamps and More - Christmas 

52 Christmas card throwdown - Wood Background 

Fab'n'Funky - Christmas 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes/stars   (there are several stars in the garland!) 

NBUS - NBUS 

Fluttering Butterfly

 I've been playing with the Indigo Blu magazine kit again. This time the huge and very beautiful butterfly stamp is the star of the show. 

I cut a piece of white paper with green speckles from the papers that came with the kit, and stamped the butterfly on it. Then I masked the butterfly and added extra interest to the background by stamping the large floral background all over it.  I coloured the butterfly with Promarkers and added a stamped sentiment. 

Next I took a piece of embossable acetate and stamped and embossed the butterfly on it. It really MUST be heat embossable or you'll end up with a poor imitation of shrink plastic when you heat it. (Now there's a thought, such a big butterfly would lend itself beautifully to shrink plastic... watch this space.) When I emboss on acetate, I like to use clear powder because however thoroughly you use an anti static pad, some powder WILL stick to the acetate. It means the image isn't quite as bold as it would be using black powder, but as it's going over another stamped image that isn't a problem. 

I cut out my acetate butterfly, scored each side of the body to bend the wings outwards a little and attached the body section firmly to that of the coloured image. 

I am sharing this with

Alphabet Challenge - Z for Zoology  

Passion for Markers - Something beginning with B 

Pearly Sparkles - Animals, birds and/or insects