Peek-a-Butterfly

This card was an interesting one to make. Mod Squad’s Peek-a-Boo challenge and the aperture portion of Butterfly Challenge‘s challenge leant themselves nicely to a card with some kind of window in it. The Butterfly Challenge also asked for the use of the colour apricot and, of course, a butterfly. Crafty Catz also requested the addition of a butterfly, whilst One Crazy Stamper and A Bit More Time to Craft are both anything goes challenges. Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper challenge requires using patterned paper.

I started by cutting a window into my card base. Whilst I do have a couple of ready-made card bases with windows they are all rectangular, and I wanted a circular window. As I don’t yet have a die cutter I cut the shape using my craft knife, and the inside of a large tape roll as a guide.

I then cut a frame from apricot coloured paper to go around the window. I again used the tape roll to get my circle and cut it out. It’s not very precise and would definitely have looked much better if it had been die cut!

I wanted to add a lattice effect to the peephole. To do this I took some white card (actually the inner part of a paper plate that I’d used for crafting with one of the girls at work) and cut it into narrow strips. I arranged these across the apricot circle then used my tape runner to glue them in place. I glued one direction first, then added the second direction so that I could weave them together. I then stuck the circle with the lattice into place over the peephole section of the card.

For the peek-a-boo portion of the card I considered stamping either flowers or butterflies, but didn’t have anything I was happy with. Instead I decided to use some patterned paper, hence including Craftyhazelnut’s challenge. I went through my stash and tried a few options behind the window to see what worked best. Eventually I settled on the butterfly patterned one as seen in the photo. I measured and cut a square of that to be behind the aperture of the card.

I wanted to add a punched butterfly onto the lattice. I punched one from the same apricot paper I’d used for the “frame” of the window but it didn’t look quite right. Unable to find another paper that I felt work I instead coloured the butterfly I’d punched with a golden pen. That seemed to work well enough! I carefully attached it to the lattice using my tape runner.

The sentiment comes from my Panduro Hobby Balloon stamp set. It seemed to work quite well with the butterfly theme. I stamped it onto a separate piece of white card and cut it out. I rounded it off slightly because I felt it looked better against the circular window. I then adhered it to the front of the card with foam tape.

When I made this card I wasn’t happy with it. It’s grown on me as the day has gone past, but even so I think it could have been better. I like the idea of it, but the execution didn’t work out as well as I would have liked.

Love,

Lady Joyful