Brusho Butterflies for As You See It Challenge

Just a quick post for today, because the Syrian refugee family that we have been raising money for in the past two years, is finally arriving so we will be at the airport to greet them and I must get all my posting done before we leave! So excited to finally meet them in person!

It's time for a new As You See It Challenge, and this time Amanda has created quite the sketch challenge for us! I confess I was stumped as to what to do with it at first. Take a look:

 What do you see there? After staring at it for quite some time, I decided I could see a butterfly, intersecting with a flower, intersecting with another butterfly. When I considered the colours that I would use, I found The Paper Players latest colour challenge:

As two of those colours are now retired Stampin' Up! ink colours that I no longer have, I decided I could do this colour challenge with reasonable facsimiles using Brusho Crystal Colours.

Here's what happened:

• I took a piece of Strathmore cold press 140 lb watercolour paper and, after taping it down to prevent warping, I sprinkled the Brusho Crystal Colour on it, first Brilliant Red, then Gamboge, then Yellow and finally, Moss Green. I was quite sparing with the amount of each colour I sprinkled. Using the spritzer, I carefully added water, enough to get the colours mixing, but not so much that I didn't still have some of the grainy texture left by the undissolved crystals.
• I dried the paper using my heat tool, because that adds to the texture and interest as well.
• Two butterflies were die cut using the Butterflies thinlits which are retiring and have already sold out unfortunately. One I cut from the red/orange section and one from the yellow/green section.
• I also used the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits to die cut the middle flower from the orange/yellow section of my watercoloured paper. I actually die cut two of the flower and cut off the stems, to join them to make one large flower.
• The sentiment is from A Good Day stamp set. I punched out the middle sentiment with the 1" Circle Punch and made two backings for it. One was punched with a 1 1/8" Scallop Circle Punch from Crushed Curry cardstock and one was punched with the 1 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch from Wild Wasabi cardstock.

•  Wink of Stella added a bit of glimmer to each piece, although that is hard to see in a photograph and the Glitter Enamel Dots helped to accent the butterflies and the flower center.

That's it for today's post! Don't forget to get your orders in for any last minute items from both the 2017/18 Annual Catalogue or the 2018 Occasions Catalogue, so you don't miss out. Thirteen days left!! Stock up on bundles and paper basics as you will pay more for them in the new Annual Catalogue!

Have a great weekend!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today. 

Product List

A Good Day Wood-Mount Stamp Set [145870] $36.00	A Good Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set [145873] $25.00	Wild Wasabi 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [108641] $10.00	Pumpkin Pie 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105117] $10.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $11.25
Watercolor Paper [122959] $6.75	Brusho Crystal Colour [144101] $40.00	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] $10.75	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad [126945] $8.50	Glitter Enamel Dots [144200] $9.25
Butterflies Thinlits Dies [137360] $35.00	Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies [141489] $35.00	Big Shot [143263] $136.00	1" Circle Punch [119868] $17.00	1-1/8" (2.9 Cm) Scallop Circle Punch [146138] $21.50
1-3/8" (3.5 Cm) Scallop Circle Punch [146139] $21.50	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00	Glue Dots [103683] $7.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

Lola the Brave

This is a very special card. Our As You See It Challenge this week is dedicated to a very brave girl! Our Design Team Member, Tara Angus, is Lola's auntie and has been updating us for a long time now on Lola's epic battle with Childhood Cancer. She is fighting it for the THIRD time now and she is only 9 years old. Currently she is struggling to recover after a bone marrow transplant, miraculous in the fact that a donor was found. She is very ill, but is starting to show signs of engraftment of the transplant cells, another answer to prayer.

Because she is so ill right now we wanted to do something to cheer her on. She is not able to receive actual cards because of the chance of infection, but we wanted to each create a card for Lola, with her favourite things: pink, unicorns and fairies, plus some gold for Childhood Cancer Awareness. Her mom will show Lola all the cards created for her on line, and you can participate in this challenge as well for Lola! If you want to read about her long battle, go to Team Lola, her facebook page. Then make a card for the challenge and post it on our challenge site. Lola will get to see all the cards made for her. Remember:  pink, gold, unicorns and fairies!

• Now, Stampin' Up! does not have any unicorn or fairy stamps, so I had to resort to digital stamps that I downloaded.
• Just before I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, my hubby bought me a few Copic markers. Without any alcohol markers to colour this in, now that Blendabilities are gone, I found them again and used the few I had to add some pink to this image. I only had a peach and a lilac so I had to use some Stampin' Write Markers as well, but it all turned out well.
• I actually cut off the fairy's wings from the image and used my Butterfly Thinlets to cut a wing out of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper, then I coloured it with a Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker and added it.
• The letters are die cut from Gold Glimmer Paper using the Little Letters Thinlits. I wanted to spell out Lola the Brave, but the layout wouldn't let that happen so I had to settle for this.
• The Gold 1/8" ribbon forms the ribbon symbol for Childhood Cancer Awareness, one that needs to have a whole lot more exposure to boost funds raised so that kids like Lola won't have to suffer any more.

No products listed today, this is just a tribute post to an incredibly brave young lady! I hope you will join with me in praying for Lola and her family and in participating in this week's As You See It Challenge, to make a card to encourage Lola in her recovery and spread awareness of Childhood Cancer. Thank you for helping!

Painted Petals and Butterflies for Freshly Made Sketches

I hope you had an amazing weekend - as amazing as you are amazingly amazing! All this in salute to a lovely stamp set and coordinating Designer Series Paper that will no longer be available to order after June 2. Just 8 more days! The stamp set is Painted Petals and the DSP is Painted Blooms and both were found in the 2015 Occasions Catalogue which is good until June 2.  Another product I used here from the same catalogue is the Butterfly Thinlits, but the good news is that you will see them back in the 2015-16 Annual Catalogue along with another set of butterfly framelits and a new butterfly stamp set! For this card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #187 for the layout:

The butterfly on this card required several steps to finish it, including watercolouring, die cutting and using Heat and Stick Powder to adhere some Dazzling Diamond Stampin' Glitter to it.

• The sentiment, stamped on vellum with Blackberry Bliss ink is from the Painted Petals stamp set as well and is one of my favourite!
• This card is the subject of a step-by-step photo tutorial that I will be featuring in my June Newsletter. If you have never use Heat and Stick powder, or if you just love butterflies you might want to make sure that you will receive my June Newsletter.  You can do that easily by just signing up here, with the understanding that you can unsubscribe at any time:

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Because I am providing a step-by-step tutorial in my newsletter, I will not be leaving a list of supplies used today. You will find that listed in detail, along with measurements in the photo tutorial.

I just wanted to remind you, if you had put it off, that this is your last week to order from both the 2015 Occasions Catalogue and the 2014/15 Annual Catalogue. June 2 will be a cross-over day. You will be able to order from the old Annual Catalogue at old prices (where there are duplicates in the new Annual Catalogue) and also from the new Annual Catalogue.  Old Hostess rewards apply on June 2, but that will change on June 3 to the new way of calculating Hostess rewards, using percentages of sales. You can still get bargains of up to 50% off on many items, but many have also sold out. Check below for an up-to-date list of retiring products and get your orders to me as quickly as possible, or shop online at your convenience at my On-Line Store.

2015 Retiring Stamps and Accessories

I also should remind you that as of May 31, 2015, My Digital Studio and all related products will be discontinued. You have until May 31 to order any of the downloads that you want to have in your collection. After May 31, you can continue to use the software, but there will be no printing services provided. You can, however, have your projects printed through other providers if you want. There will be no more support for the software and the website will be gone after May 31.  Here is where you can check out the downloads available until then:

My Digital Studio Retiring Products

Thanks for dropping by today. Please leave a comment! I like to get to know my readers better.

Try a New Technique for As You See It Challenges

It's Friday and time again for As You See It Challenges and this week it's challenge #080 which is to try a new technique that you've been wanting to try! This is a great kick in the pants! There are so many new techniques that I tell myself I should try, but just never get around to it. This challenge makes it mandatory! Thanks, Amanda!

I'm going to fill in the blank in the following way:  A new technique that I want to try is: Multicolour Embossing! I found it on Splitcoaststampers, which is a great resource for papercrafters and it's free! You should check it out if you haven't done so yet.

This technique is fairly straight forward, but I combined it with some other embossing techniques that I have used before. Let's take a closer look:

• I used the new technique on the butterfly, which is die cut using the Butterfly Thinlits** and I used the Dryer Sheet technique to easily remove all the little pieces from the die and the die cut. To use this Multicolored Embossing method, I used painter's masking tape to cover up or mask the parts I didn't want to emboss and added Versamark ink to the part that I did. I removed the tape and added the Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder in the middle and heat set it with the Heat Tool. I then covered the silver center and the outside edges with tape and repeated the steps, only using Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder this time. Finally, I covered everything but the outside edges with tape and repeated all the steps using Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder.
• The background is created using the emboss resist technique. I sponged some Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party and Always Artichoke in the places where I was planning to stamp the fern and the flower images from Butterfly Basics. I stamped over these areas using Versamark Ink and added Clear Embossing Powder and heat set it. Don't forget to use your Embossing Buddy just before adding the ink to keep the powder from going in places where you don't want it. 
• Then I sponged Lost Lagoon ink over the whole thing and that brought up the clear embossed images with clarity, as the embossed areas resist the dark ink and show the sponged areas underneath them.
• I added the honeycomb texture image and the postage mark with silver embossing to complete the background.

** These are currently not available due to a severe shortage.

• The sentiment is from Butterfly Basics and was stamped with Lost Lagoon Ink on Whisper White cardstock and die cut with one of the Apothecary Accents dies and backed with silver foil die cut with a Deco Label Framelit.

The technique is really just a form of masking, taken up a level with embossing powders, so it's not hard to do. Give it a try and enter the As You See It Challenge this week!

The Clearance Rack has been restocked with 22 more products! Don't wait because at the prices they are, they won't last long! 

Have a great weekend! I'll see you on Monday after a Stamping Retreat Weekend! I should have lots to share!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!

Product List

Butterfly Basics Clear Stamp Set [138816]	Butterfly Basics Wood Stamp Set [138813]	Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Stamp Set [137154]	Silver Foil Sheets [132178]	Lost Lagoon 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133679]
Pool Party 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [122924]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [131180]	Always Artichoke Classic Stampin' Pad [126972]
Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982]	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad [133644]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder [109130]	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder [109131]
Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder [129398]	Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder [101930]	Heat Tool [129053]	Big Shot [113439]	Apothecary Accents Framelits Die [127003]
Deco Labels Framelits Die [130102]	Sponge Daubers [133773]	Stamping Sponges [101610]	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

**Butterfly Thinlits Die

Painter's Masking Tape