2 Swirly Butterflies

I wanted to share these cards that I created for ISC - Innovative Stamp Creations (see sidebar for link) - because they are some of my favorites. They were both created from stamps on the Rustic Artsy Swirls sheet. (The actual cards have already been sent to the company so these two aren't a part of this week's drawing for choice of a card.)

Both cards feature as the main panel a stamp that is one solid piece of rubber with the swirly lines cut deeply into it, so when you are inking the stamp the lines don't get any and the color of your background cs shows where the swirl lines are. The swirls on the borders (in brown) are different stamps, all in the same set.

Card measures 5 1/2" x 4 1/2"

On this card I used a set of Versa-Magic DewDrop cat-eye chalk pads (they are pretty juicy inks.) I also used Staz-On Timber Brown for the dark brown areas.I stamped the butterfly in Timber Brown on a piece of white scrap cs. I trimmed the edges and used the chalks to color it in, applying them with Mini-Tip Applicators by Gary M. Burlin & Co. Then I stamped the You're and Special on some scraps of the cardfront cs color, using Timber Brown for the lettering and also to sponge the edges.

*tip*
If you apply a tag, label, etc. to a card and it looks too blah, consider edging it with a sponge and corresponding inks. It creates a visual frame and helps the eye "place" items on a busy background.

To get the main panel effect, I started with the lightest color in the set and randomly inked the stamp directly from the pad, leaving many bare spots. I stamped this on my cs firmly to transfer as much ink as possible as the colors are soft, and without cleaning, did the same with the other three, inking up different parts of the stamp. I used a stamp positioner to line it up exactly the same over the preceding image every time. On the fourth and darkest color I also edged the stamp to give it a more pronounced border.

Next I trimmed this panel, layered it on dark brown, then lighter greenish-brown, then the cardfront which is pinkish beige. I stamped the butterfly on the background so when I placed the colored trimmed one over, you'd see the antennae. I tacked down the word tags and cut-out butterfly (with a piece of red line tape along the body section only so the wings can be bent upwards for a 3D effect).

Then I stamped the swirls on a stamp postioner and placed the image over my card, to see where dark swirls would complement the existing design (if you don't have a stamp positioner, just stamp the swirls, etc. on a piece acetate and move this around your design to figure out where you want the next element to be stamped).

*tip*
When stamping over multiple layers of cs, you will end up with little gaps where the rubber can't reach. I repair these 'holidays' with a tool called Colour Shaper #2 Angle Chisel Firm, by Royal Sovereign Ltd UK. The tip looks like an angled skinny triangle made of flexible rubber. I use this to pick up ink from the pad and fill in holidays. It works because the rubber doesn't absorb any of the ink so it all gets transfered full strength wherever you apply it.

The second card was made basically the same way, except that I stamped on newsprint (which probably won't hold up long-term color-wise). I just used two different chalk inks on the background (from the Versa Magic set Harvest), and then cut it into panels.

I thought the word label needed a bit of background so I stamped the swirl once on scrap paper and then stamped the label, then the word over it in full strength ink.
The butterfly was stamped with one color and then pop-dotted, and the cardfront got some sponging around the edges with matching ink. And that's it!

Card measures 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Thanks for looking!