Butterfly Kisses

Aloha dear ones,

Was your week a good one? Resting up for the next week? I've been busy with projects but am nearly done so am able to PLAY ALONG WITH GINA'S RELEASE CHALLENGE!!! Come and play along with us!

Gina's challenge is probably my favorite technique - emboss resist. Why? It's Fast. It's Easy. And you can doctor it up as much or as little as you wish for a POW of a look. Gina's card is a very soft, pastel sponged look. This is a challenge for me because I like to go too far, adding elements and especially color until the thing glows enough to be seen from outer space. I should have worked for NASA.

For our niece who worked SUPER hard, working while going to school. She will graduate from nursing school in one more week and has two sweet little girls!!! She started out like I did, from the bottom as a very hardworking CNA, then back to school to become an RN. I loved every bit of it, even some of the yucky stories that make me laugh now. So to see my brother's daughter do what Auntie did, well, shucks, makes me feel a little bit proud. And she's marrying a very handsome police officer! ♥ So Cabrina, I love you.


What Did I use?

Stamp Set: "Take Flight" an oldie but goodie from 2009 by GKD
Embossing Powder: White by GKD for butterfly. For the sentiment I stamped first in Worn Lipstick then poured Clear embossing Powder over it by GKD to give it a glossy, raised look on pearlized Vellum.
Inks: VersaMark for the embossing; Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber and Worn Lipstick blended over the butterfly
Cardstock: GKD White; Pearlized Vellum (sentiment)
Craft Foam (I cut out a layer under the entire focal image layer and sentiment to pop the entire look)
Sequins are clear by Pretty Pink Posh, held on with Multi Matte Medium
Vellum Tape by 3M Scotch Brand to hold the vellum sentiment to the foam tape (actually works and I can't see it behind the pearl vellum)
Scor Tape to hold all that foam to the card and the top layers

Mahalo for stopping by!

Sending each of you Aloha ♥

Dance of the Butterflies

AlOha!!!

Did you think I might be able to play along with the STV weekly challenge? Cause I was sure wondering that myself. You see, Mr. Migraine has come back and brought some old friends, tonsillitis, sore throat, aching teeth and eyeball. But color me Super Woman, hunched over and with a cane. I can STILL COLOR!!! Take THAT Mr. Migraine.

Each day is precious. Today I was able to be the listening ear to three friends online as they cope with serious and sometimes tragic challenges. It feels good to let them pour their hearts out, just quietly listening. And afterward, I felt like perhaps I accomplished something special just by being here, on my electronic devices, willing to listen. Remember when we would go to each other's homes or meet for coffee and just talk? Times have changed. Now we have electronic devices. Seldom do I get a phone call, which is great for me because calls where me out faster than going to the mailbox. But a long time ago, getting together as friends was far more intimate and rewarding that this internet thing.

The challenge this week at StampTV is to Color Color Color!

Stamp Sets: Stately Flowers #4 by Melanie Muenchinger for Gina K. Designs
Cardstock: GKD
Inks: Memento Black, London Gray
Markers: Copic
Signo Gel Gold Pen
Glossy Accents
Liquid Pearls Gold
Vellum, VersaMark and Gold Emb Powder by Ranger for accent butterfly
GKD white emb powder for sentiment
Turquoise pearls Doodle Bug Designs
Dries Clear
Wink of Stella Clear all over butterflies and flowers

Mahalo nui loa for your kind comments!

With Aloha ♥

Embossing Flowers and Butterflies

Over the last couple of weeks, I've tried to emboss and color/paint some flowers and butterflies. I did a little at a time and now have a bit of a stash.

The flowers are embossed white onto vellum, then sponged with Memento chalk inks from the back. The smaller butterflies are done with the same method.

The larger butterflies were stamped with Staz On black ink, then I colored with Inktense watercolor pencils. Then I used a water brush and water to blend the colors together a little. The colors from Inktense pencils are vibrant and beautiful. After they dried, I used some Liquid Pearls to add some dimension to them. I am pretty certain this butterfly is by GKD but I forgot to write which one on the backs like I usually do. Sometimes there is quite a long delay between stamping and coloring for me, and I'm sorry I can't remember which stamp it is.

Thank you so much for coming by!!!

Butterfly Dreams

This is a card for a challenge hostessed by Angela at SCS called "Inspiring Words."
The hardest part was finding the sentiment to use. The one I settled on is from a Gina K. Designs grab bag I won a long time ago, but isn't it a beautiful saying? It took me quite a while to pick this one.

After that the card is very simple. I used dp from K&Company by Susan Winget. The whole paper pack is gorgeous. I then took a Sakura clear glitter pen and outlined all the butterflies, then added a few dots here and there.

I made a matching bookmark and called it done. Easy Peasy after all those more difficult cards recently!

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look!!!

Always Butterflies

As summer ends, autumn begins, where do all the butterflies go? They used to cover San Juan Capistrano, but I heard recently they have not been there as much. We have them here year-round. They always seem to come back in spring and summer on the mainland, so I feel there's Always Butterflies.

This is another card that started out CAS and quickly turned into another "Oh, no" and shabby here we come. I had also tried a new technique in the background that (click link for simpler tutorial as well as video ==>) Lydia at Splitcoaststampers  taught via tutorial today. She calls it Bokeh. I called mine a failure LOL because I could not find a new pencil with a round eraser near me. So I used the next similar thing: the broken chop sticks I keep in my craft box for when they come in handy, like today, to stand in for the pencil erasers, which they could not possibly live up to. The paint didn't look like round circles, but rather like splotched messes.

Create the background:

Color gelatos onto your stamp. Using an Aqua brush or any paint brush with water, thin and blend the color on your stamp. Stamp the image onto cardstock.

Next you create the bokeh dots around the shadow image. Take your gelato color (I used the same blue) and color a small area on an acrylic block. Add a touch of water to thin, then dip your pencil eraser in. Tap gently around your image, first close to the image so that the most color is deposited around the image, and as you tap farther away, the dots get fainter. Keep doing this until you get a 'dreamy' dotted background all around the image.

Now for the main, to-be-fussy-cut image: I am using a butterfly by the way. Color your image with the colors you would like. I used yellow, green, medium and darker blue. Use your aqua brush to blend the colors to a wet, creamy consistency, then stamp onto a fresh piece of cardstock. You can add Gelato color directly to your image if you want it to be more vibrant, using your finger to blend. Time to cut this out. It will be adhered over the shadow that you created earlier.

I didn't like my shadow image background. so I tore off the edges and added sponging with yellows, greens and blues by Memento. Then I sprayed it with Shimmer Pearls (I make it), scrunched it up, then took a heat tool to it so it cried crumpled. I added some Glitterata Gold ink to the edges. Background done.

It really lacked pizzazz. Enter Prisma Glitter {grin} - ahh, just the right thing to doctor this up. First I painted the butterfly with Mod Podge, and laid it in a small container of glitter, spooning it over and over until it was all covered. I used a heat tool and heated it from underneath to set the glitter, and adhered with strips of foam adhesive to the shadow/bokeh/crumpled background.

The rest is pretty self explanatory, but please ask questions if you have any. My dh exclaimed, "It's as big as a 747!!!" which drew me down, including the corners of my mouth, into a frown. I will definitely be practicing bokeh more once I find a new pencil eraser :D

Thank you for looking!

You're So Sweet!

"Sent with Love" stamp set by GinaK Designs
For a sweet person who gave me flowers yesterday - thank you, Lisa D!!
I'm trying to take my cards to the next level by decorating the insides, even the backs, so when I can, I'll post all 3 views.
Front:

Inside:

Back:

I love Gina's Pure Luxury cardstock, and used Basic Grey patterned paper for the brown and pink pp. I used 3 different Martha Stewart punches (butterfly, popup flower and doily edger), Marvy square and scallop square punches, Spellbinders lacy ovals and classic ovals, Hero Arts Prisma glitter, Memento inks, stash ribbon, 3D dots, and button.

Thanks so much for looking!!! with hugs, Rosy