Shades of Gray

While cleaning off my sadly neglected crafting desk, I ran across some items I had purchased at a StampFest event in Orlando last year. Yes, I never stopped collecting new toys! I pulled together a few other scraps that were laying around on the table and came up with this quick, very simple card. I am thinking I see pattern of pink butterflies in my work lately. Maybe it's a promise of spring being on the way? Surely hope so!!

Skeleton Key Butterfly

Hi!! I can't believe it has been over two years since I have posted on my blog! There have been a lot of changes and challenges over the past two years, so I guess the time has just slipped away. For anyone who ever read this blog back then, Kyli is now cancer free and just celebrated her seventh birthday! I also have a grandson who is sixteen months old. He was just diagnosed with a lifelong condition that will present a whole different set of challenges, but he is just as cute as he can be and such a fun guy to be around. Sadly, I lost my father back in January. My husband and I spent a great deal of time getting his house ready to sell and get him moved down to Florida with us. He made the permanent move in June.
There was so much more, but I really wanted to share this card. It is one of a couple I made this weekend. I haven't spent much time in my stamping room and it took a while to come up with the first card, but this one seemed to come together pretty easily. I saw the idea of using a key for the body of a butterfly while wasting time on Pinterest and just had to try it. I think it came out pretty well!

Butterfly Tag

It only took three days to make my project this time!! I had a couple of new butterfly dies I was wanting to play with and this is what I came up with. While sorting through my dsp, I came across some papers in shades of pinks and grays and even though those papers did not end up on my tag, they were definitely the inspiration for it. The butterfly dies are by Cherry Lynn Designs. The rest is an assortment of items from the scrap pile and neglected embellishments.
 The dark gray flower was made using the newest flower punch from SU! I punched a couple of the flowers and then ran them through the paper crimper a couple of times and them wadded them up. I then opened them and separated the layers and stacked them up, securing them with a big pink blingy brad from Hobby Lobby. I used graphite Glimmer Mist on the flower to give it some shimmer.
 The papers for the tag are all torn, inked, and dry embossed. The ribbons and fibers are all from the scrap jar. I even managed to use some of my hoarded Hodgepodge Hardware!
I'm rather pleased with how this turned out and hope you like it, too!

Butterfly Box

I have come to the conclusion that I need my job to provide a time structure for my life. Too much free time just isn't a good thing for me. Without any long term classes to take and lots of stamping time on my hands, I pictured getting amazing things accomplished. Alas, I have only piddled with a few projects, though a couple of them were more involved. This butterfly box is an example.
A friend of mine requested a card box for her daughter's baby shower later this month. The theme for the baby's room and the shower is butterflies, so this is what I came up with. I used an empty box that I found in my closet (had a bunch of coffees and cocoas in it originally) and covered it with pink butterfly papers. The butterflies were covered with a two sided adhesive and then cut with a Spellbinder's die. After cutting, I removed the top layer of adhesive and covered the butterflies with micro-fine glitters in pinks and greens. Strips of acetate allow the topmost butterflies to "hover" over the box.Here's a close up of a couple of the butterflies so you can see the glitter effect.

Now that I can smell the books and dry erase markers looming on the horizon, I am going to try to make the last couple weeks of summer vacation more productive. Off to create!!!

Black Orchid Butterfly

I had a sketch challenge to do for an online group I belong to and this is what I came up with. I stamped a butterfly image that I picked up last summer while I was in Ohio to see my dad. It is by Stampendous and looks great embossed in silver! After embossing, I added some ultra fine Flower Soft and some tiny half pearls. Popped it all up in the center of a circle and added the rest of my layers. The sentiment is a rub on from SU! and the papers are by SEI, part of the Black Orchid stack. The card base is Basic Black as are some of the layers. This was fun to make and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Hope you like it too!! Now I'm off to get Kyli, so that will be the end of my stamping for today!! Time to spend some time with that sweet little grand baby!!