Rainbows and Butterflies

I have enjoyed a few days off and spent all of it in my craft room! So I have lots of cards to share in this and my next few posts.

One of my tasks was to make cards for gift packets that I give as high school graduation gifts. I like to send the graduates off to college, or their other plans, with 30-40 cards for assorted holidays so that they can keep in touch with family and friends. I discovered that I was almost out of St. Pats Day cards, so made a few. This is the first.  I used the fun digi image and sentiment from Bugaboo named "Stella March St. Patrick's Day" to create my card using the Bingo card diagonal- "Sparkle, 2 Images Merged, Embossing." (The sparkle is in the paper I used on her hat band and behind the sentiment. The yellow vellum is embossed with a Darice's folder. 

Entered into: 

Bugaboo Stamps-BINGO                                                (catchthebugblog.blogspot.com)

QKR Stampede- #296 Anything Goes                          (qkrstampede.blogspot.com)

Artistic Inspirations Challenge-Challenge #200        (artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.com.au)

I love stretching the versatility of my stamps and supplies, so the monthly Twofer challenge, with the goal of using the exact same stamp to make two distinctly different designs for two different occasions, is a favorite of mine! The current challenge is to feature butterflies. One of my cards features a single beauty, the other features a whole kaleidoscope of 'em! (I googled to find out what a group of butterflies is called. Have heard them referred to as a swarm… but that makes me think of angry buzzing bees, not beautiful butterflies! Was thrilled to learn that, for butterflies, a group can be called a swarm, rabble, flutter or kaleidoscope. I love that!) One of my twofer cards is a Sympathy card (with the butterfly on a simple gray background embossed with a Darice folder), the other is a "Thinking of You" tri-fold card to which I added two other butterfly stamps to create the kaleidoscope. The sentiment is an old stamp from Stampendous  that reads "Thoughts of you flutter by on the breeze." (The "With Sympathy" sentiment is now removed from the wood block. I think it was either a Hero Arts or SU. I am also not sure who makes the inside sentiment as that is also an unmounted rubber stamp. I haven't used it much as it doesn't make a clean impression... even with my MISTI. So frustrating!) 

Am entering the card into several other challenges including Power Poppy's B&W with a Pop of Color and two Simon Says challenges. One requires the use of more than one stamp, the other theme is "Inspired by a song." When creating the cards I found myself thinking back to college days when working on an Early Childhood degree. One of my favorite things was to teach fingerplays to pre-schoolers. One of their favorites was about butterflies. I couldn't remember it exactly (that was 4 decades ago!) so did some web-research and found a cute little video clip with two teens sharing  "Two little butterflies."  You can watch it here… and possibly teach it to the littles in your life? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0MCokEA7pk)

                               

 

Entered into: Two-fer card

Twofer Card Challenge- #5 Butterflies                                        (twofercardchallenge.blogspot.com)

Simon Says Monday Challenge- Inspired by a Song                 (simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- More Than One Stamp   (simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge)

Power Poppy- B&W with a pop of color                                      (powerpoppy.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-spark-with-bit-of-drama.html)

Being in a butterfly making mood, I pulled out my stash of all things bugs and found a few punched butterflies. I love the mood board for these months Calling All Sista's challenge and decided to make another encouragement card to send to my sister-in-law who is going through chemo for breast cancer. I think she will love the sentiment on this one. (I've had it in my files for years. Developed it on my laptop in an elegant font, and printed it off for use on this card. I am not sure of the author. Did some web research and couldn't find that information. But do want to note that I am not the author. I'll keep looking. Until then, wanted to brighten my SIL's day with it!) 

Entered into: CAS Bohemian

Calling All Sista’s- Color Challenge                                             (callingallsistahs.blogspot.com)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #334-335 Anything Goes  (wordartwednesday.blogspot.com)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge                           (craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper.blogspot.com)

Penny's Challenge- #381 Anything Goes                                   (pennyschallenges.blogspot.com.au)