For the love of butterflies -- Top 3 Winner in 2 Challenges

Sometimes you find something and it has a deeper meaning for you.  I found a challenge, for example, which is entirely about butterflies.  That's right!  Butterflies!  Every challenge includes a butterfly (or butterflies).

I happen to love butterflies and always have.  I love their colours, even those that are monochromatic are incredibly beautiful.  I love their shapes.  I love how they flutter.  There is very little that I don't love about butterflies.  I've even had dreams where I have the wings of a butterfly.  But that's another story.  I've always dreamed about flying...

My daughter was a watcher.  She didn't do a lot of babbling.  She would watch the world with those enormous blue eyes of hers and internalize everything.  Oh, she said the requisite "Mama" and "Dada" but little more.  And then she saw a butterfly and was mesmerized.  Her first real word was "butterfly".  It wasn't crisp and clear but it was definitely easy enough to understand.  Even she knew that there was magic in butterflies.

So entering this butterfly challenge was a natural for me.

I like to punch out or cut out my butterflies.  Actually I just bought a butterfly framelit as well.  I like my butterflies to appear as if they're actually fluttering on the card or box or on whatever project I happen to be using them.  This challenge was for a single layer card.  In other words the butterfly would have to be directly stamped on the paper.

Okay, I can do that.  But if I have to stamp the butterflieson the paper, I will use my Blendabilities and see about using a mask.  Maybe the new Stars framelits could provide a good mask.

And that's what I have done.

Basically I took some letter-type printing paper and cut out the second to largest star in my framelits set.  Then I took my two-way glue and ran a thin layer of glue around the perimeter and let that dry.  I did the same with the star shape.  Letting the glue dry makes it removable and that's what you want a mask to be.  I just wanted to make sure the masks would stay in place while I stamped.

First I stamped my butterflies through the open star template and, after removing the template, covered the butterflies with the solid star and stamped my poppies.  After that it was a matter of colouring and, finally, mounting the finished piece onto a base of Basic Black.

It's one piece of cardstock with stamping and colouring but looks like so much more, doesn't it?

For more butterflies and single layer cards, check out Butterfly Spot Challenge.

I've also entered this card in the Stampin' Royalty for their "anything goes".