13 July 2017

Butterflies


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


Supplies


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

Tuesday Throwdown: Single layer
Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes



10 comments:

  1. Fabulous card ! Love your beautiful purple card base and the bronze Perfect Pearls pops up so gorgeously over it ! Love the beautiful sentiment too ! A great take on our challenge ! Thanks for sharing and for playing along at Less is More !

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  2. This is a fabulous card. Of course I adore the basecard colour and your stencilling is so neat and beautifully done. Love that uplifting verse too! Thanks for linking up at AAA Cards.

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  3. A fantastic take on our challenge collaboration with Less is More and AAA Cards this week. A stunning colour for your card base and oozing elegance with all the gold stencilling. Shimmer just adds that extra WOW factor. Thanks so much for playing along with us

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  4. I love how your stencilled the butterflies on such a great coloured card base. Thanks for playing along with us at AAA Cards!

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  5. i love purple and with this fab gold, it makes for such an elegant card. Thank you for playing with us at AAA cards

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  6. Wow totally love it! Thanks for joining in with our challenge at the sketchy challenge!

    Greetz,
    Marieke

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  7. What a gorgeous stencil, and I love the effect of the shimmery perfect pearls over the purple base.
    Thanks so much for sharing with us at Less is More, Anita x

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  8. Such a beautiful card, and a nice little tutorial as well! So happy you joined us this week at Tuesday Throwdown Challenge!

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  9. Wow!!! Absolutely beautiful butterflies on the purple. Thank you for sharing with us at AAA Cards.

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  10. What an absolutely stunning card! I thought the image and sentiment were embossed - I was so surprised to see you'd used perfect pearls - fabulous! Thanks for playing along with us at AAA Cards!

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Thank you for your comments. I do read every one. Your comments help me to grow as an artist. It warms my heart to see wonderful comments and constructive criticism.