Floating Butterfly Birthday Card

Hello, Crafters.

The forecasters were right about the heatwave yesterday. It was glorius! We need it to last for awhile – five months would be great! You may remember a little while ago I shared a floating butterfly card that I needed to find antenna for? A crafter friend in Australia asked if I could make a video showing how the card was made. Hence today’s video, with the antenna! I went through all my sets of dies and pulled out three or four that had dies I felt would do the trick. Then I had a lightbulb moment, and decided to try the sprig punch. It worked an absolute treat! I Googled butterfly antenna images to see if I needed to cut off the oval at the top. The answer was no because it’s very similar to a clubbed antenna! I was amazed at how many different types of antenna there are – it’s almost like anything goes!Yesterday was the first time I played with any new products – apart from the make-n-takes we did at OnStage, and Natalie’s online Sale-a-bration party. The two cards I made both feature designs from two different packs of Designer Series Paper that will be available in the new catalogue. I’m totally in love with the Terracotta Tile design from Mosaic Mood DSP. There is a very similar design in the pack in green!  I used Terracotta Tile and Grapefruit Grove for this card, and they complimented each other beautifully.The photograph above shows the back of the butterfly to demonstrate that the glue is not really visible. I chose a soft design from the P erennial Essence DSP for the card I made in the video. The cardstock I used is Lovely Lipstick and Rococo Rose. When I die cut the butterflies, I used cardstock that I had adhered to some Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets. It was amazingly easy adhering them onto the acetate.  Another great benefit of using these sheets is that it isn’t necessary to adhere another butterfly on the back to hide the glue. Surprisingly, the glue isn’t obvious. In the video, I did add a butterfly to the back of the main one, so I could demonstrate how it’s done. You may expect the biggest challenge of making this card would be adhering the butterflies on the acetate. I found the biggest challenge was adhering the acetate to the cardstock. Having said that, it wasn’t particularly difficult when I worked with my Grid Paper as my guide! After I punched out the antenna, all I needed to do was to cut off all the leaves, and leave the stem without any bumps. I found this really easy, although the two leaves on the inside were a minor challenge.

Recently I have been trying not to use any products that are retiring. I failed on at least four counts in the video! Unfortunately the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets aren’t being carried forward, and neither is the Precision Base Plate. I can understand this product being retired because we’re not selling the Big Shot as from Tuesday! The black Sizzix Die Brush is also retiring, but there will be a new die brush available that will fit into our Take Your Pick tool. The butterfly die I used for today’s video is from Springtime Impressions. It is currently available as a bundle with the Abstract Impressions Stamp Set. Although both products will still be available, they won’t be available as a bundle in the new catalogue.

I’m really pleased how these two cards turned out, especially the Terracotta Tile card. That’s about it from me today and I look forward to being back with you tomorrow. In the meantime I wish you a very blessed Sunday, and happy crafting.

JanB. xx

Products used: please click on any link to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop.