Bronzed Butterfly

After having taken a bit of a cardmaking break, I’m back with another card for you! This is a response to five different challenges – SugarSketch, Simon Says Stamp Monday, The Sisterhood of Crafters, Daring Cardmakers, and the Butterfly Spot Challenge.

The sketch I used to get the layout for this card comes from SugarPea Designs’ SugarSketch 45.

The challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters is to use dies or punches. I don’t currently have a die cutter (I’m saving up for one!), but I do have punches. Or at least, I have a butterfly punch… Which conveniently enough made it an easy decision to also link to the Butterfly Challenge. That challenge involves, of course, using butterflies. On this occasion it also requires using buttons and bronze.

Daring Cardmakers’ challenge at the moment is to use kraft. I hadn’t initially planned to add that to this card, but realised it would be a good colour to go with the bronze so I added it in. I also decided to throw in the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which requires using stars in some form.

The very first thing I did was punch my butterfly from some bronze paper (it looks a bit more gold in the photo unfortunately.) In fact I did that before I’d finished deciding what other challenges I was going to include!

Next I went through my selection of buttons to try to find some that would fit the bronze theme. I didn’t have anything that jumped out as perfect, but I found a few options and got husband to help narrow them down.

Then I chose the sentiment for the card. I wanted something quite large and with the butterfly this seemed like a good choice. I cut some white card to the size I needed and stamped the sentiment in place. My cheap black ink is not very good, as you can see… I’m going to try to buy a better one soon.

I cut a small strip of craft to be the strip down the side of the white panel. I decided to stick on some stars to bring in the star challenge. I also cut some of the bronze paper to mat the white panel on to. My measurements were slightly off and it ended up bigger than I’d initially intended but I think it works. Finally I cut a panel of the kraft coloured paper to be the backing for the card.

I assembled the card from the top down. First I used my tape runner to attach the starry kraft strip to the white panel, then used a glue stick for sticking the butterfly down. I used the tape runner again to attach the buttons, and then to adhere each layer of paper/card together. Finally I adhered the panel onto a plain white cardbase.

I’m very happy with how this card turned out (and it was lovely to be making a card again!) I think the colours go really well together and the layout works nicely. I’m not hugely keen on the way the buttons look. I think maybe the positioning of them isn’t right..? Not sure. Something about them seems a little off to me. And of course the stamping is lacking a little. All in all though, it went well.

Love,

Lady Joyful