Cardmaking - Poppies and Mariposa Petals

Morning Everyone,

Two posts in one morning ... pass me the aspirin!

Hope you are well and having a very good Friday. the EM has his paint brush out, freshening up the living-room walls, so I'm sheltering in the craft room to escaping the paint fumes. It's hard not being able to join in but it does mean I've had time to make a card.

This card fits in with Mrs A's current Butterfly Challenge #55 which calls for an aperture and/or apricot. I couldn't manage the apricot but have created an aperture using an oval die - possibly for the first time ever! It was easier than anticipated so can't think why I haven't done it before.

Supplies used and notes on how the card was made:

- a 4" x 6" white card base

- a scrap of smooth black cardstock (from Papermill Direct) trimmed to a fraction smaller all round than the card front for the first layer

- a piece of red textured card (Papermania) trimmed a fraction smaller than the black layer. I then die-cut the oval shape (from a CArt-Us die set) before embossing with the Crafts-Too Lattice folder

- the poppy stamped piece for the aperture. This is just one of the pieces from a stamping session I had some time last year. I can't remember exactly what I did then but I used the Rubbernecker Poppy Field stamp. These stamps come in two parts. There are several good demos on YouTube showing how to use them. For the coloured part of the poppies I used the watercolour technique with, I think, Tim Holtz Festive Berries distress ink and water. Archival Jet Black, again I think, was used for the outline. I trimmed the piece down a little to fit behind the red embossed topper which I then adhered it down on to the black layer.

- snippets of thin black card, not the same as that from PaperMill Direct but from goodness knows where,  and the red textured card die cut with a Tonic flourish die, Mariposa Petals. I adhered the black flourish on the front letting a part of it lie over the aperture. Then I trimmed the butterfly from the red one and adhered just the body part on top of the black one. I teased the wings up to take the photo but they will fold down flat for posting.

- tiny jet black gems - source forgotten - painstakingly glued on the lattice intersections and the butterfly's body. Note to self: never again!!!

Because I've not been making so many cards lately, the snippet mountain, though not quite as high as Ben Nevis yet, is growing. That being so, I deliberately used as many snippets on the card as I possibly could which means I can also submit it to Di's challenge: Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 229. Something to celebrate :)

Wishing you all a very happy Friday and an enjoyable weekend.