Saturday, May 26, 2018

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)

15 comments:

  1. Great Stella card with a wonderful background and the gold. Thanks for joining the Catch the Bug BINGO challenge, Lisa Lynn DT.

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  2. Beatiful colors to reflect rainbows and gold, and Stella is always a fun one. Thanks for participating in our challenge at Catch the Bug.

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  3. Wonderful grouping of cards Kathy! Especially love the Twofer butterfly cards. The trifold with the butterflies over the edge is amazing. Love the soft sponged sky in the background and the beautiful colours you've used to bring the butterflies to life. The sympathy card is very elegant with the gray and black background and your pop of colour from the butterfly. Thanks for making cards for the Twofer Card Challenge and hope you'll join us again soon.

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  4. Oh, Kathy, I'm so sorry that you missed the Twofer deadline! Your Twofer butterfly cards are sensational! Your kaleidoscope of butterflies all over and around your tri-fold is genius!! And your sympathy card is just lovely with a ton of texture! Thank you for writing and sharing the link so I could see these! BTW, I also love your other cards. What a very thoughtful gift you create for the high school graduates! Your SIL will be so encouraged by the beautiful card you made her. I wish her all the best with her recovery! Hugs, Darnell

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  5. This is a fantastic idea for a graduate! They never have cards and rarely have money to buy them. Bet this is one of their favorite gifts! Great image! LOVE Bugaboo images, especially her! Thanks for joining our weekly challenge at QKR Stampede!

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  6. Another beautiful butterfly card for your sistahs. The intricate doily is lovely and reminds me of the scroll work on the ceiling.

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  7. Wonderful collections of cards and the sentiment for your Calling All Sistahs cards is perfect. Super design and just right for our challenge. Your card sure will give your SIL Encouragement, we are so pleased you joined us at Calling All Sistahs x

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  8. What a fabulous group of cards! I love how each one is totally different and unique. Your ability to use so many different color palettes is very impressive! I like how thoughtfully paired the scenes with the sentiments, too. Thank you so much for sharing your skills with us for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

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  9. Wonderful cards Kathy! I absolutely love the butterflies, they look so pretty edging the card.
    Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
    Mandy xx

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  10. An orange butterfly is so perfect for the B & W! Thanks for another lovely design for the challenge at Power Poppy!

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  11. Stella looks pretty determined! What a great idea for graduation gifts - 30-40 cards for each is so impressive! And always a good idea to encourage that generation to send cards. Thanks for joining the QKR Stampede anything goes challenge this week! Dorothy S, DT member

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    1. Thanks. I always love the look of the graduate when they open the package stuffed full of cards. Saturday, one of the grads said she was worried about being at college without a car (a rule for freshmen) and now she'd at least be able to send cards to people she cared about. She looked through all of the cards in my presence and started putting them in piles as to who would receive them. A few times she giggled and when she found the book of stamps at the bottom of the pile, she jumped up and gave me a hug!

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  12. So beautiful!
    Thanks for joining us at Craftyhazelnuts patterned paper challenge.
    Happy crafting!
    Catherine x DT

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  13. Wonderful Encouragement Card. Thanks for playing along in the Calling All Sistahs Encouragement Challenge!

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  14. So beautiful. Love the doily to match the photo inspiration. Thanks for playing with us at Calling All Sistahs. Hugs, :)

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Thanks you for your comments. They bring joy to my day!