Yay!  It’s the last birthday card for August!!!  Now that sounds like I’m not having fun and that’s not the case, it’s just that with being sick and all, I got behind, so then I’ve been playing catch up for weeks, and that is never fun – nor is it conducive to the creative process let me tell you!

The Finished Card

This card came out of my head with no thought or planning (looks that way you say) but really it was a very organic process and I decided to just go with the flow and see what happened.  I really liked the butterflies I made for this art journal project a few weeks ago, so I knew I wanted to make more of them so why not for this card?

The Process

I decided to stick to a lavender/ lilac colour palette with maybe some pink thrown into the mix, so I choose this Lovely Lavender cardstock by Gina K for my card base and OMG realised it was my last piece, so I’d better not mess anything up!   Then I used some Moon Child paper by Prima to cut two panels, one for the front of the card and one for the inside, which had to match because it would be seen when the card was standing upright.  I covered both with clear gesso, then began to apply paper texture paste through a Butterfly stencil by Finnabair and left it to dry while I worked on another project which you will see in the next post. Once everything was dry I used purple fluid acrylics on the panels, with some Unicorn Hair Metallique sparks paints, both by Finnabair/Prima.  Meanwhile I die cut all the butterflies I wanted to use, using the Tim Holtz Tattered Butterflies and the Prima Winged Beauties both by Sizzix, using some Prima papers leftover from other projects.  Then I stamped Finnabair butterfly stamps onto the butterflies using Ground Espresso Archival Ink and left them to dry.  After adding some obligatory black and white splatters, I stamped small butterflies and sentiments on the panels using Archival ink, before attaching the butterflies onto the card.  All that remained was to stamp Happy Birthday on the card and it was complete!

Stenciled butterflies using Finnabair Butterfly stencil and Paper Texture Paste
Die cut some butterflies using Tattered Butterflies by Tim Holtz and Winged Beauties by Prima. Then stamp detail on them using butterfly stamps by Finnabair and Altenew
Add acrylic paints and allow them to run and drip down the page, through the stencilled butterflies and the ragged paper edges

Other Views

Stamp Happy Birthday on the inside panel so it is displayed when the card is in the open position
How the card looks when in the easel position, very pretty for display. You can see all the little 3D butterflies standing out from the card. They are easily flattened again for posting.

What I Love / Final Thoughts

I love the colour palette, and I love the butterflies and how 3D they are especially because I layered one on top of the other. Now all that remains is to finish off the companion present.

I was inspired by Art Daily Cafe’s Mood Board for August because I love this colour, it’s one of my favourite go-to colours.  Is this my inner landscape?  Probably, but also it reminds me of my garden landscape, butterflies, wildflowers, a Buddleia (butterfly bush) which is guess what colour?  Yes lavender, and this year we have been graced with the presence of so many beautiful butterflies.

PROJECT RECIPE:
Clear Gesso
Liquid Acrylics – purple
Tuxedo Black Memento Marker
Distress Archival Ink – Black Soot
Black and White paint splatters
Metallique paint – Unicorn Hair
Gina K Lovely Lavender cardstock for card base
Sizzix Tattered Butterflies, Winged Beauties
Prima papers including Moon Child and papers from my stash
Finnabair stamps
Happy Birthday sentiment stamp (Honey Bee I think?)

Thanks for visiting today. Your comment is really appreciated.

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