Tuesday 15 May 2012

Butterfly birthday - a pretty book card for a 17 year old girl

This is another birthday card for one of my nieces featuring lots of my favourite techniques.

"Butterfly birthday"

The front cover has a pretty inked background with my favourite distress ink stamping and perfect pearls in the background using some gorgeous meadow stamps.

"Butterfly dimension"

The butterflies are stamped separately onto watercolour paper and acetate using archival ink. The watercolour paper butterflies are coloured with distress inks and a watercolour brush, highlights being added with a white pen. All the butterflies were carefully cut out and adhered to the background with glossy accents. For the butterfly on its side, the two acetate wings are cut out separately from two copies and layered over each other. The wings are carefully shaped by hand and just the edges adhered to the paper layer with glossy accents. It's hard to see in the photos but looks very pretty in real life, you'll just have to trust me ;-)

"Many Happy Returns"

The closure is just a length of lace coloured with distress inks and glued beneath the two inside panels.

"Birdy Decoupage"

Here's a gorgeous decoupage using a free image from the Graphics Fairy. The sentiment is enhanced with a glaze pen (excuse the reflection in the photograph, it reads "Many Happy Returns of the Day"). It's an old-fashioned sentiment that you don't see very often these days, and I never really thought about what it meant when I had cards with this on as a child, but isn't it lovely?

"What's behind the arched window?"

There used to be a programme on the BBC called "Play School" and every day they would have a very short film (some wildlife, or a factory production line or something along those lines) introduced by heading through one of three windows: the round window, the square window or the arched window. This window covers up the book aperture, you have to open it to see what's inside...

"Hello little birdies"

It's another decoupaged Graphics Fairy image :-)



Ingredients:
Artemio stamp set meadow
Artemio stamp set insects
Spellbinders die set: Heartfelt Creations Decorative Chateau Gate HCD718
cardstock: purple 300gsm, white 160gsm
Distress inks: Milled Lavender, Dusty Concorde, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire
Archival ink: Jet Black, Cobalt Blue
Perfect Pearls: Heirloom Gold
printout images from the Graphics Fairy
lace
acetate
adhesives: Pinflair dimensional glue, PVA, glossy accents

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything Goes
Cupcake Craft - Simply No Design Paper
Joanna Sheen - Happy Birthday
Paper Sundaes - Things with Wings
By the Cute and Girly - Spring is all around
Oozak - Spring Colours
Creative Craft Challenges - Distressed

19 comments:

  1. Oh how I remember Play School Izz, the arched window was always my favourite and I have a real thing for arch shapes in my crafting.

    Your project is just stunning and lovely use of the Heartfelt die. I've working on samples using that and the stamps the last week and had such fun.

    B x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh wow this is beautiful. Kim

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh wow Hun,this is just amazing,the detail is just fantastic Hun,and those butterflies,are just so so beautiful stunning work Hun,hugs Cherylxxxxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sure your neice will absolutely love this! The Design Team are really pleased that you joined us for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week - Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is just so beautiful..love the images.. the colors.
    No doubt your neice will flip over it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. lots of detail and very pretty thank you for joining us at paper sundaes

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maddy this is stunning. Those butterflies are amazing and I love the wee bits of white that you added with the pen. And Wow what an inside too. Really gorgeous card. Your cards are always so much more. They are gifts too. Really lovely. Lee x

    ReplyDelete
  8. it's a wonderful project! so charming
    thanks for playing with us at BTC&G this month
    hugs
    céline

    ReplyDelete
  9. So pretty! Thank you for joining us at Bunny Zoe crafts!

    ReplyDelete
  10. ooohhhhh aaaahhhhhhhh Stunning!

    Thanks so much for joining us at Creative Craft Challenges for our Distressed challenge.

    xoxoxo Carly

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is gorgeous! Thanks for joining us at Cupcake and good luck! Delphine xx

    ReplyDelete
  12. WOW!!! What an amazing creation! Love the sweet details!! Thanks for joining us over at Cupcake Craft Challenge this week! Good luck! Hugs and sunshine!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Simply stunning. Thanks for joining the Joanna Sheen Challenge .

    Wendy -x-

    ReplyDelete
  14. Gorgeous creation, just love your Butterflies. Thanks for joining in our challenge over on B%TC&G. Carolxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. Stunning Thank you for joining in with the Creative Craft Challenge xxx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gorgeous card Maddy, the design and colours are stunning, as always. Love and hugs Kathy xx

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is beautiful and what a great keepsake for any little girl! It is a treasure...

    Thanks for joining in with BTC&G this month!!

    Aideen x

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself :)