my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Monday 13 October 2014

Butterfly With A Tag

 Hi everyone, first off I must apologise for the poor photo, The weather here has been horrible for the last few days, really dark and dismal with lashings of rain and it was difficult to get a decent picture.  In the end I used a flash and although it was the best representation of the butterfly I could manage it has bleached out the colour of the background which is really a pretty green. I set out to make this card for the Butterfly Challenge Blog where the requirement this time is to use a tag with the butterfly. I began by making the butterfly which is cut from some Brushoed watercolour paper using a Memory box die.As you can see I have both the solid and openwork versions but I can't remember which butterfly it is. For the overlay I used a piece of textured iridescent paper. The base card was made from an A5 sheet of white card that had been cut and I just folded it it in half so it is not quite a DL size, but is a longer than a normal card. The green paper is from a LOTV pad and I cut it with a scalloped blade in my cutter. The bottom edge is punched with a Fiskars edge punch. The patterned tag was cut from the same LOTV pad  using a Sissix die and then I drew round it onto white card and cut a slightly larger size to mat it on. I cut a strip of the patterned paper with a scalloped edge to go across the bottom. All of the cut pieces including the green were edged with a Denim Blue Distress Marker. I tied some blue ribbon through the hole in the tag and across the bottom and then assembled the card adding three punched flowers cut from the Brushoed paper with an XCut punch and finished them with some tiny green gems.
On the right is a photo of the result of my first real play with my Brusho
paints.  Not very artistic I know but I really wanted to see for myself
how all the different pigments show up when they hit the water, it's
fascinating. Particularly interesting is the bright orange powder that immediately becomes lime green as it comes into contact with wet paper. I allowed all of these to dry naturally but then  realised  they weren't going to make very good backgrounds and also there were a few areas where I had dropped a touch too much of the powder and I decided to experiment to see if the colours would still blend if water was added after they had dried. I sprayed each piece fairly liberally with water and I am happy to say that the paint was reactivated and I allowed the colours to run which resulted in slightly  more muted colour washed effect but where the multi colour pigments had split originally they still showed up. I forgot to take pictures of this stage so I hope you can get the gist. You can see the piece I used for the butterfly on the left of this picture, the colours in this are Prussian Blue and Lime Green.
Thank you for taking time to visit  here, I hope I haven't bored you all. Thanks too for your comments I really appreciate them.
I am of course entering my card at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge Blog - Butterfly With a Tag

























12 comments:

  1. A really pretty card. I love the butterfly! The colours are gorgeous and I like how the colours in the little flowers match the butterfly. x

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  2. This is such a pretty card Jean and I love the solid and openwork parts to the butterfly, and the irridescent paper shows up beautifully. The lotv paper on the tag and the border is also lovely and the sheer blue ribbon is just the right shade and goes with the brusho background on the butterfly and those little punched flowers so prettily. I like your brusho experimentation too and the colours are lovely and vibrant and pigment rich. I can see why they are so popular. x

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  3. The butterfly is gorgeous and I love the colors! Your photo looks good in spite of the weather, and we've had the drizzles, rain and fog here as well! Wishing you brighter days ahead!

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  4. Lovely Jean, so pretty, I love the tag and the butterfly, the photo looks OK Jean, I know what you mean about getting enough light, it's gone so dark lately , winter is definitely on its way!
    Hugs Jacee
    Simply Paper Card Design

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  5. Hi Jean. This is very pretty, and I see you had fu with your brushos too. I thought your butterfly was the same as my memory box ones but it is just slightly different, but it is very lovely. I haven't made my card for this challenge yet. I'm not used to doing tags for anything. I must have a think. We have rain this week too if that is any consolation! Kate x

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  6. Blogger was having a funny fit with my comment last night. It's in the underworld somewhere.
    Will try again today.
    I loved reading how you put this card together, not boring at all. It is nice to see the piece of card that you used for the butterfly before you cut into it. I love the results playing with the Brusho gives. No two ever the same. The paper used for the tag element is so pretty and really compliments your butterfly and background. Thank you for fluttering by #16. hugs Mrs A. butterfly challenge.

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  7. Hi Jean,
    playing catch up with my comments.
    What a great butterfly tag card.
    Lovely design, and fab colour.
    Your brusho backgrounds look wonderful, and I can't wait to see what you use them on.
    Lots of crafty love. Jenny L.

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  8. Love the colours, its a beautiful elegant card.
    Yvonne

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  9. Loving the simplicity of this card...

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  10. A wonderful entry for Mrs. A's Butterfly challenge. I am so loving the look you're getting with these luscious Brusho-s. That is such a rich color under the iridescent overlay - and it's really pretty against that soft green background. TFS

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  11. So pretty love the butterfly!

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  12. So lovely! The colors remind my of spring!

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