Butterflies & Blooms Inspiration Challenge

It’s Wednesday – are you ready for a new challenge?! I hope so, because this is another great one. This week is a ‘butterflies and blooms’ inspiration challenge! If you’ve been out & about at all this spring/summer, I’m sure you’ve seen that iconic image. A beautiful, colourful butterfly, sipping at a bright flower. Or perhaps just fluttering across a bright blue sky.

BUTTERFLIES & BLOOMS INSPIRATION

Here’s the visual for your inspiration.

Now you take it from here! Choose whichever stamps, colours, layout that you want to use. Just be sure to incorporate both butterflies and blooms, and you’re golden!

INSPIRING POPPIES

Ha ha! Just as I was typing this, I realized that the name of one of the stamps sets I used, Inspiring Poppies by Gina K. Designs, has the word ‘inspiring’ in it. How fitting! I’ve used several stamp sets for my card, plus a new fuss-free fancy fold card base!

I used a combination of ink blending for the background, stamping, and colouring with my coloured pencils.

CARD BASE

So for the card base, I didn’t do any work at all! True story! I simply opened the package of Scalloped Oval Swinging Z Fold card bases by Paper Cuts, and folded on the creases! These card bases have just recently been added to the Scrap ‘N Stamp online store, and they’re amazingly reasonably priced. They’re also available in different colours, and designs. You can get this one, or step cards (2 kinds), grad cap, slider, and the pop up box card as well! What I did have to adjust to with this base is that I’m used to attaching the scallop oval to the front piece, whereas this one you see the complete front & then back, when the card is fully open.  The picture below will explain what I mean.

This is the card,fully opened. You see, you can see the back part of the oval. So, I blended the background, stamped & coloured the poppies on the front, as well as the back. Twice the work, but twice the fun, too! You can also see both sides of the sentiment pop out; so I stamped coordinating sayings on the front & back part. Continue on with that by coordinating the sentiment on the inside back panel, as well.

COLOURING DETAILS

To create the blue background, first prepare a mask of the scallop. Do this by tracing the scallop onto a full sized Post-It Note, and cutting it by hand. Lay the card flat so you’re looking at the front portion, and mask off the area you don’t want blue. This creates a full scallop oval for you. Next, apply Broken China Distress Oxide ink with a blender brush within the scallop. Finish with the front, and then repeat the process for the back of the oval, using the same mask.

With your background blended, now stamp the poppies from the Gina K. Inspiring Poppies stamp set in the middle of the oval. Work on just one side at a time. Use coloured pencils for the poppies, being sure to use light & dark to create shadows and depth. I chose my Polychromos pencils in White, 121 Pale Geranium Lake (lighter red) and 219 Deep Scarlet Red. Laying down a layer of white before colouring with the reds helps you with the highlights.

Stamp the butterflies from the Gina K. Heartfelt Hydrangea stamp set, on a separate piece of white cardstock, in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. Cover with clear embossing powder, and heat set. Use your coloured pencils again for the butterflies. I chose 121 Pale Geranium Lake, 107 Cadmium Yellow, 115 Dark Cadmium Orange and 156 K. Cobalt Green. (I give you the colour #’s as well, as sometimes the names change, around the world, but the #’s stay the same).  Cut out the butterflies by hand, and attach them to the card with foam squares.

Stamp the sentiments front the MFT Well, Hello stamp set in Nocturne ink, and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.

The photo above shows the z fold of the card.

JOIN THE CHALLENGE!

You certainly don’t have to do any type of fancy fold for the challenge, but if you’re inspired – go for it! For more ideas & inspiration, check out what the rest of the Design Team created, on the Paper Craft Crew challenge blog. You’ll also find the link there, to add your project.

NEED SUPPLIES?

If you need some supplies, or just want to check out the cool fancy  fold card bases that are available, I’ve included links below.

Affiliate links are provided, at no extra costs to you.