myasperations 8-1-24

     I am honored to have served as a Guest Designer for Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place and am now one of her “Contributors” (which means that she provides me with digis or clear stamp sets several times a year and I get to create cards or other items with them!) It is always fun to see the images Beccy invites me to use. 

    This time, the dig set is named, “Butterfly House” and since I love Beccy’s beautiful coloring of the butterflies. So, I opted for using the pre-colored beautiful blue butterfly digi and several of the sentiments to make two quick and easy items.

                          

    The first item is a card which took very little time to make, mainly because it required no coloring or fussy-cutting! When paired with some dusty blue floral paper, which I had carefully torn along the edges, the card has a lovely vintage feeling.

   An added note: to prevent "accidents" when fussy-cutting small or delicate images (or edges of images), attach packing tape or  squares of Self-Stick Laminating Sheets to the back of all digis before fussy-cutting.

    I’m entering this card into several challenges, including The Four Seasons:Anything Goes Summer (Where I live butterflies symbolize summer. Although we have none of these beautiful blue Ulysses Butterflies here in Wisconsin, other species made a strong showing in July- as noted HERE- and are still showing up nicely in August. So… Yay to summer!)

 

                                                    
Supplies: 

·   Pre-colored digi and sentiments are from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Butterfly House)

·   Cardstock, patterned paper and other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Goes Summer Aug 2024

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #659-660

Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge- Anything Goes

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Butterflies)

Outlawz Challenge- August 2024 Linky

     The second item, a bookmark, required fussy-cutting, so took a bit longer to create, but I love how realistic the butterfly looks as it “rests” atop a book!  I had searched “Butterfly Bookmark” on Pinterest and found lots of options. I used this one, replacing the sketched butterfly with one of these digis. (I did make a few revisions in the video tutorial that I’ll add to the bottom of this post for your review if desired.) When finished, the sentiment was trimmed and added to the bookmark. I love how the butterfly appears to perch on the pages of a closed book. So fun!

     I’m entering this card into several challenges including Allsorts Challenge: Seasons Delights and Time Out:# It’s always Summer somewhere (in the Midwest USA  butterflies are a symbol of summer. Butterflies near where I live made a strong showing in July-as noted HERE- and are still showing up in August. So… summer isn’t over yet!) and Park Hopping: My Happy Place (looks like Disney Animal Kingdom offers several opportunities to learn all about butterflies, and see up to 70 species!)

My steps to making the Butterfly Bookmark-  

1) Using Basic Word program, paste two of the butterfly digis onto a blank page.

2) click on a butterfly digi and click “Picture Format” in toolbar.

3) click on “Crop” symbol.

4) trim the butterflies in half (so you have a left wing and right wing).

5) Optional-If you’d like your butterfly to be more realistic, add a third butterfly digi to  

     your page, and “crop” wings, leaving body and antennae.

6) print onto white cardstock.,

7) to protect images from rips, attach packing tape (or Self-Stick Laminating Sheets        

     *detailed below) to the back of all digis before fussy-cutting.

      Optional- to add sparkle to the top of the wings, attach Sparkly/Holographic Clear Self-

      Stick Laminate  (** details below)

8) use a bone folder (or similar tool) to gently press out air bubbles.

9) fussy-cut digis, being careful not to cut off delicate/small sections, especially antennae.

10) follow the last few steps on the video tutorial to finish the bookmark, adding sentiments 

     and other embellies as desired.  

     Note- you can use strips of cardstock (color of your choice) or patterned paper, folded to 

     make the “handle.” I usually cut these strips slightly smaller than the width of butterfly 

     wings where they meet the “body.”

     If you plan to add the body and antennae to your bookmark, stabilize the handle by 

    taping the two strips together at the top, which will hold the two wings together. Then, 

    adhere the body/antennae to the butterfly with a small strip of adhesive or foam tape.

 Supplies: 

·   Pre-colored Digi and sentiment is from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Butterfly House)

·   Butterfly Bookmark Tutorials- several on Pinterest. I used this one.

·   Cardstock, Paper doily strip, and  other items from my stash.

·   All other items from my stash.

    Optional Items- *Clear Self-Stick Laminating Sheets (I use the Avery brand, but there are 

    other options on the web)

    **Sparkly/Holographic Clear Self-Stick Laminate- I bought a few sheets of this several 

    years ago at a craft show. I have seen it on Etsy, and other sources on the web. (Temu is 

    an option that usually appears, but I avoid that company as  is a company that is known 

    to be tied to scams and ID theft cases.) 

Entered into:  

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes  

The Paper Shelter- #606- Summer Break AG

Allsorts Challenge- Week 791/2: Seasons Delights

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (August)   Disney Animal Kingdom

Time Out Challenge- #269 It’s always Summer somewhere