Butterflies

This single layer card with an uplifting sentiment features a Magenta stencil and Unity stamps with Perfect Pearls.

Supplies

LinkDeli.com

These are not affiliate links just the products I use and where you can find them, too (if they're not retired).

Putting It Together

I love stencils. They're incredibly versatile. Magenta is a Canadian company that makes some absolutely lovely stencils and stamps. I pick up their stencils when ever I see them on a sale (admittedly, they're a bit pricey otherwise). I found this stencil at a garage sale a local scrapbooking shop was hosting. 

When using a stencil, you want to make sure your surface, in this case my card, is not going to move. For this project, I secured it with washi tape. I ended up removing the tape from the top and bottom since the butterflies on the stencil takes up nearly the full 5 1/2" of the A2 top fold card (5 1/2" x 4 1/4"). 

I really do like this washi but I have a lot of it and not that many projects to call for it as a decoration. So... it works really great as a tool. It's sticky enough to hold stuff in place but usually comes off the paper without tearing anything. 

I positioned the stencil over the area of the card I wanted to decorate and secured it on one side. I masked off the areas of the stencil I didn't want to use and made sure all parts of my card that I didn't want to decorate were covered. I used a mixture of Post-It note and more washi for the masking. 

I applied the Perfect Medium directly to the card through the stencil. Perfect Medium is like a stickier VersaMark. VersaMark would have worked for this, too, but I have the Perfect Medium from Perfect Pearls kits and should use it up.

Since I only secured the stencil on one side, I could open it like a door to make sure I had full coverage on the butterflied. The tiny ones were tough to get filled in, so this really helped. 

I removed the washi on the side of the butterflies and then brushed the very fine power of Perfect Pearls bronze over the stenciled area. 

Do not dump/cascade the Perfect Pearls like you would with embossing powder. It's too finely ground. It doesn't cascade, it comes out in a clump and sticks to the paper. It makes a big mess that you can recover from, but it also wastes the powder. Brush it on, brush it off. Trust me. (And I remind myself of these every month or two if I've been doing more with embossing that Perfect Pearls *laugh*.)

You can see how the residue of the removed washi on the left also picked up the Perfect Pearls, so... I rubbed the Perfect Medium on that side of the card, covering the area where the washi was and brushed on more Perfect Pearls to make it look intentional. If I had left the washi on while brushing Perfect Pearls on to the butterflies, I wouldn't have had that edging. I think it was a happy accident.

Like for embossing, I used the powder tool on the area I wanted to stamp the sentiment. I used Perfect Medium on the sentiment and then brushed more of the Perfect Pearls on.

A Swiffer cloth over the whole project wipes off any of the powder from the tool as well as any stray Perfect Pearls.

To 'set' the Perfect Pearls, spray a mist of water in the air and then waft the project through the mist. You don't want to heavily wet the area with the Perfect Pearls. just a very light airy mist.

Inside, I added a Perfect Pearls butterfly in the same colour to the lower corner but left the rest blank.

Challenges

AAA Cards: Single Layer + Coloured Cardbase

Less is More: Single Layer + Coloured Cardbase

The Sketchy Challenge: Bingo - Butterflies, Sentiment, Favourite Colour

Tuesday Throwdown: Single layer

Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes