Birthday butterflies

Today I'm sharing a card I made for my best friend.

This was a mess, painty project, and so much fun!

I started with my pieces of card - one piece for the background and one for the butterflies.

I pulled out a variety of acrylic paint colours I wanted to use - teal, magenta, purple, yellow, lime green. I brushed them over the card with a wide brush.

I dried in between layers, so the colours didn't go muddy.

This was the background piece:

and here's the piece for the butterflies.

I kept the colours more separate with the latter, so the butterflies had some contrast. I also dry brushed some gold over the top for shimmer.

I overstamped the background with a variety of texture stamps, using the same paint colours. There were some Indigoblu stamps in the mix, plus a lot more!

I then stamped my three butterflies onto the other card. One is a Clarity stamp, the others I think came with magazines.

The middle one went a bit blotchy - I pressed a bit hard, which is fine for the Clarity stamp, but not for the cheaper, squidgier stamps! So I painted another piece of card and restamped. I fussy cut the butterflies out, then mounted onto black card and cut round, leaving a narrow border.

I also added white pen round the border, to lighten it.

To help the butterflies stand out on the background, I overstamped the middle section with white gesso, using a checked pattern texture stamp.

I also scribbled round the edge with a black and a white drawing pen.

To tie the butterflies in better, I stamped with the swirl stamp using the gold paint, just at the edges.

I mounted onto black card, then onto an 8x8 card blank.

Finally, I added the butterflies, using tiny foam pads down the centre.

It looks flatter in the photo than in real life, you don't see all the layers. Maybe if doing it again (and if I'd had more time, this was made to a deadline!) I'd add texture paste, or use an embossing folder to add more dimension.


Nonetheless, I really like this! I hope my friend did too.