Category Archives: Butterflies

Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card

Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card with Artist Trading Coins for The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Hello, Friends!  Have you heard about Artist Trading Coins?  I’ve made a trio of them as embellishments on this Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card.  What prompted this action?  Well, that would be the latest challenge over on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog where the always fabulous Suzz is our hostess.  Let’s see what she has to say about this trendy challenge.

Challenge Theme: Artist Trading Coins 
The challenge this time is to create an Artist Trading Coin. I am inspired by a new way of capturing a little bit of our art to share with others. You challenge is to create a trading coin which should be a circle shape 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

Having never made an Artist Trading Coin before, I thought this could be a fun adventure.  After poking around in my stash for a bit, I decided to have a play with the Stamperia Lilac paper pad, some Stamperia Rice paper, texture paste, stencils and oh, a whole cast of mixed media characters.  This is what I came up with:

Stamperia Lilac Artist Trading Coins From the Beginning

The adventure began with a little die cutting.  Three 2 1/2″ circles were die cut from lightweight white chipboard using a Spellbinder’s Circle Nestabilities Die.  Because I wanted to work with Stamperia Magna Carta handmade paper, I  needed a sturdy base for the coins.  After cutting the first set of 3 circles, I cut a second set, this time from Magna Carta paper.

I adhered the Magna Carta coins over the chipboard coins and proceeded to color them with Distress Oxide Inks.  After attempting to heat emboss the surface with Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture (epic fail) I realized I would have to come up with a fix for the mess I’d made. Then I had the idea to top each coin with a sort of doily, so I cut another set of 3 circles from Stamperia Lilac patterned paper using a Spellbinder Triple Tear circle die.  

Then I got involved in the creative process, and forgot to take photos.  But I ended up with the 3 Artist Trading Coins seen in the first photo.

Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card: Waste Not Want Not

Having been raised by a mother who’s credo in life was “waste not, want not,” I decided to put these coins to work as embellishments on this Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card.

This first ATCoin is covered with some Stamperia Rice Paper, a bit of Venise Lace, Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste applied through a Stamperia stencil and a Prima Lavender Butterfly.  I don’t know why this photographed with fuchsia edges, but it did.

I tore lots of paper layers from Stamperia Lilac and layered them up on my 5 1/4″ x 7 1/4″ ivory card base without matting them.  The Prima Butterflies were dressed up with a Tim Holtz Pen Nib and a little metal clock charm that I purchased at TFJB.

 

I used Antique Linen Distress Paint to alter the TH Word Band.   The Little Birdie Flower (available in AC Moore stores now) was the perfect accent for the pink/purple gingham bow. Now some detail photos:

Stamperia Lilac Friendship Card: A Peek Inside

Since I still had 2 coins left, I decided to put them to good use inside the card. I’ve used a tiny Paper Fastener to attach one to the pocket I embossed with the Botanic 3-D Texture Fade.  The raised portions of the pocket were brushed with Antique Linen Distress Paint then lightly tapped with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink.

This lovely journal card is tucked into the pocket on the front of this flap element.

A stitched bookmark and the 3rd ATCoin are hidden behind the flap.

The shallow pocket on the bottom half of the card also holds some sweet surprises.

This collection has a lovely cut apart page with a beautiful envelope element.  I cut this out, wrapped it with ribbon and tucked in a vintage silver spoon and honey stick.

How perfect is this teabag for this project?  I love when that happens!  I can see how these ATC Coins could be a wonderful way to use up little scraps and leftover bits.  They don’t take long to make, and the size means they work well for embellishments.  So, i can definitely see myself making more of these in the future.

Now It’s YOUR Turn

You are cordially invited to join in on this fun challenge.  To do so, simply create your own vintage or shabby chic ATC Coin.  You do not need to use it on a project as I did. .  Then link  up on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog  before 11:55PM EST on Tuesday, February 26th.

The winner will earn the chance of a Guest Designer spot  at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. In addition, the Design Team will select three further outstanding entries and those creators will receive a Top Pick badge to display on their blogs!

Did you enjoy learning about these ATC Coins?  Or have you made some yourself? Either way, , I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

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Butterfly Kisses Valentine’s Day Banner Tutorial

Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook: Butterfly Kisses Valentine’s Day Banner

Hello, Friends!  How do you spell love?  Today, I’m spelling it with a super cute Butterfly Kisses Valentine’s Day banner tutorial.

Isn’t it fun?  The best part about this banner is the fact that it uses very few materials and can be made in about an hour.

Supply List for Butterfly Kisses Valentine’s Day Banner

Snapguide Tutorial for Butterfly Kisses Valentine’s Day Banner

Check out How to Graphic 45 Butterfly Kisses Valentine Banner by Kathy Clement on Snapguide.

Why I love Butterflies on Valentine’s Day

I know butterflies are not a traditional image for Valentine’s Day.  Well, as you might suspect by  now, there’s a story behind this project.  Since it is nearly Valentine’s Day…and the story is super romantic, I’ll share it with you here.

My mom and dad were both working as bookkeepers at a trucking company in southern Vermont in 1939.   Mom worked the day shift.  Dad worked nights.  Mom must have caught his eye right away, because of all the available chairs in that office, Dad opted to use hers each night.  This meant that every day at shift change, he had to return her chair to her desk.  And of course, this gave him the opportunity to say good morning.

Dad was shy.  I mean super shy.  So he rarely said anything beyond good morning each day.  But, he started leaving little gifts for mom on her desk: a pack of her favorite chewing gum, a piece of candy…small tokens of friendship.  After almost a YEAR of this delicate courtship dance, Valentine’s Day rolled around.  Mom came into work that morning to find an envelope with her name on it.  Inside the envelope was a beautiful Valentine’s Day card with…you guessed it…butterflies!

Mom and Dad were finally married on Valentine’s Day 1941.  Each year when their anniversary rolled around, Dad gave her a box of chocolates, a packet of chewing gum and a card…and there was always a butterfly on it somewhere!

So now you know why I love butterflies for Valentine’s Day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

 

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Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet Tutorial

Graphic 45: Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet Tutorial with Nature Sketchbook

Hello, Friends!  I’m up on the Graphic 45 blog today where I’m sharing this Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet Tutorial.  It’s just the perfect little gift for Valentine’s Day.

Look at alll the darling little bee images in Nature Sketchbook.  I decided to riff off that idea and turn it into a Love Sweet Love theme…complete with a honey spoon!  Tea with honey is one of my favorite things!

These metal pieces are painted with Black Soot Distress Paint to match my yellow, black and red color palette.  For the keyhole, I let the paint set for about 1 minute, then I wiped off with a barely damp paper towel.

Just as bees love to cluster around the hive, cluster your embellishments around a focal image to create a real visual impact.

Sweet Surprises on the inside

Join two policy envelopes together and what do you get?  A really fun wallet/pocket combo.  I altered the red policy envelope to create the pocket, and I’ll show you how in the Snapguide tutorial at the end of this post.

The pocket is filled with pretty ephemera cards, a post card and a delicious herbal tea bag to go along with the honey spoon on the front of the wallet.

Don’t you just love these gorgeous images?  To create a custom string tie opening, simply glue chipboard buttons on top of the black discs .  It adds a great pop of color!

Wanna see what’s in the pocket?

Happy to oblige!

Would you like to know how to make your own Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet?  Then please enjoy this Snapguide Tutorial.

Snapguide: Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet Tutorial

Check out How to Love Sweet Love G45 Policy Envelope Wallet & Tag by Kathy Clement on Snapguide.

I hope this has given you some “sweet” ideas for your own Valentine’s Day (or any day!) creations.  It’s always the right time to share a little love!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

 

Love Sweet Love Policy Envelope Wallet Supply List

 

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Petaloo Butterflies and Blossoms

Petaloo Butterflies and Blossoms for Creativation (CHA)

Hello Friends!  Happy New Year!  Wow…did the holidays go by in a flash this year?  I have all my Christmas stuff packed neatly away, and now I am looking forward to the next big event: Creativation (formerly known as CHA).  I’m not going in person this year, but I created a trio of projects using Petaloo butterflies and blossoms.  These will be displayed in the Petaloo booth during the convention, and I am so excited to share a sneak peek of them here with you today.  All three are made with gorgeous Petaloo flowers and glorious Graphic 45 Nature Study papers.

Nature Study Tri-Fold Mini Album

This cluster of flowers, pearls and ribbon simply makes me want to swoon!  The album is fairly small at just 5″ x 7″, but it has room inside for loads of photos and journaling, thanks to the folio design.

A pale yellow anemone is framed by cream and spice Petaloo flowers and Spring Berry Clusters.  Do you see the blue butterfly that I framed inside a miniature Tim Holtz pocket watch frame?  Adding bits of glitter, mica chips and chunky embossing powders to the frame lends lots of texture and shine to the bow cluster.

 

I used a fairly heavy hand when distressing the Nature Sketchbook papers.  this added so much texture to the trio of images on the front of the album cover.

Inside the album, there is room for more than 2 dozen photos, which is amazing, given the album size.  I achieved this by tucking eight 4″ x 6″ photo mounts behind a decorative belly band. Photos can be mounted on both sides of each photo mount.  And there’s plenty of room to journal on the ephemera card, too.  On the facing page, I used another beautiful journal image from the paper collection.

When the folio is fully opened, you really get a sense of how photo friendly it is.  The center panel houses a double pocket with more journal cards and photo mounts.

The right hand panel holds a fun waterfall folio that will hold 4″ x 4″ photos.

There are 6 pages in the folio, and each one has either a belly band to hold photos, a pocket or a journaling spot.

Butterfly Tree Centerpiece

Now this was a fun project!  I used a FloraCraft 4″ x 12″ green styrofoam cone as the base for my Butterfly Tree Centerpiece. I attached the base of the foam cone to an empty ribbon spool, then decked it out with dozens of paper rosettes, Petaloo Blossoms, Butterflies and vintage buttons.

These Darjeeling Garden Rosettes are gorgeous!  They come in a host of colors, but I used just cream, spice and green on my tree.

Darjeeling  butterflies add a fun, flirty element to the composition.

Petaloo Butterflies and Blossoms Banner

I wish you could see this banner in real life, because it is one of the prettiest I’ve ever made.  It measured almost 5 feet from end to end and is just loaded with gorgeous Petaloo Butterflies and Blossoms!  I just wish banners were not so hard to photograph!

These yellow Darjeeling Anemone just pop against the Nature Sketchbook papers!  I used a lot of Darjeeling Cream Garden Rosettes in this piece, too.  Petaloo flowers are so easy to alter!  I sponged these cream rosettes with Mustard Seed Distress Ink to create yellow roses for the banner.

This center panel is decorated with a Graphic 45 Shabby Chic Ornate Door Pull.

First, I painted the door pull with two coats of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Then I distressed the edges a little with Sandpaper.  Finally, I attached it to the pennant upside down, creating a little urn to hold beautiful Petaloo flowers.  The interior is lined with green hydrangeas that are topped off with cream petite blossoms.  You can see that I altered these with Distress Ink as well.

Fussy cut butterflies from the paper collection look great with Darjeeling butterflies from Petaloo. The lifted wings give the banner a feeling of movement and flight, which is very fun indeed!

So now you know what I’ve been working on over my Christmas break.  I’m so honored that my work will decorate the Petaloo booth.  I really have a very fun “job!”

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  If you find yourself at CHA/Creativation, pop by the Petaloo booth so you can see these goodies in 3-D and living color.  I know Petaloo has some fun surprises for their guests at the convention.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy
Teastained Cream Butterflies x 8

Darjeeling Garden Rosette, Cream x6

Darjeeling Garden Rosette, Spice x6

Darjeeling Mini Rosette, Green x 6

Darjeeling Hydrangeas x24, Green

Darjeeling Hydrangeas x24, Cream

Darjeeling Anemone x4, Yellow

Darjeeling Anemone x4, Green

Darjeeling Mini Mix x8, Spice

Darjeeling Mini Mix x8, Green

Darjeeling Petites x24, Cream

Spring Berry Clusters x2, Peach

FloraCraft 12″ x 4″ Styrofoam Cone, Green

Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook 8×8 Pad

Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook 12×12 Prints and Patterns

Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook Decorative Chipboard

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Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial

Gypsy Laser Soul Guest Designer: Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial

Hello, Friends!  I’m having such a good time guest designing for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts this month!  Today, I have a Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet tutorial to share with you.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 02I paired some fabulous GSL chippies up with Graphic 45 DIY papers and some elements from Botanicabella.  Here’s a supply list for your convenience.

Supply List for Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial

  • GSL Butterfly of Gears
  • GSL  Mixed Media Fragments 2
  • GSL Faux Metal Number Plates
  • Distress Paint: Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Carved Pumpkin, Dried Marigold, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey
  • Stampendous Aged Black Embossing Enamel
  • Bronze Mica Flakes
  • Metal Gear pieces
  • Graphic 45 DIY paper roll (Curiosity Collage and Butterflies)
  • Graphic 45 Botanicabella Deluxe Collector’s Edition
  • Graphic 45 Washi tape
  • Prima Gold Crackle Texture Paste
  • Tall Coin Envelopes
  • Small magnets
  • Manila tag

Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial

Check out How to Steampunk Chipboard Butterfly Embellishment by Kathy Clement on Snapguide.

 

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 03

Two coin envelope flaps were glued together to create a wallet and covered with Graphic 45 DIY paper.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 01

I trimmed down the Mixed Media Fragment squares to fit the height of my envelope, then used it as a stencil for my embossing paste. I then heat embossed the chippie with Aged Black Embossing Enamel.  Once the paste on the envelope had dried, I glued the chipboard fragment down with Glossy Accents.  I had to use a few hinge clips to hold it in place until it had dried.  I threaded buttons and hot glued them in place.  The faux metal number plate was tapped with paint, then glued in place.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 05The wallet has a side flap opening.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 06Here it is all opened up and decorated with elements from Graphic 45 Botanicabella. I kept everything on the inside “flat” so that the wallet could close with ease.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 07The left side is a sleeve with a magnetic opening.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 08It contains a decorated manila tag.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 09

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 12I cut one of the envelope sides off to create a slash pocket, then filled it with pretty postcards.  This is a great place to write a personal greeting, mount photos on the reverse side of the post cards or tuck in a gift card.

GSL Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial by Kathy Clement for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Product by Graphic 45 DIY and Botanicabella Papers 11It’s a really pretty little ensemble.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you enjoyed this Steampunk Butterfly Gift Wallet Tutorial.  You can find more ideas and inspiration on the GSL BLOG.

Now go get your craft on!

Cheerio,

kathy