a flower and a butterfly...

Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards today.  First up is a card for the Hero Arts Stay Crafty challenge.  This time it is a sketch by Julee Tillman.  I always think I'm going to get something made for these challenges, but it never seems to happen.  When I saw the sketch I just had to play along.  I started going through my Hero Arts stamps and discovered a stamp and die set that I do not remember even buying!   How funny is that?  And the other thing.... I don't even know what the set is called! (ETA:  I posted my card on Instagram and Hero Arts was kind enough to let me know that it is from the April 2016 My Monthly Hero kit! I still don't remember buying the kit, but obviously I did!) It has a beautiful main floral image and then several smaller images and sentiments.  The large flower can be die cut as a single image, but there are also several other dies that can be used to cut out different parts of the flower so you can layer them.  I checked on the Hero Arts website, but found nothing.  I think I purchased it at the same time I bought a My Monthly Hero kit several years ago, but I'm not sure.   Anyway, I stamped the images on watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then watercolored them with distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Wild Honey, Forest Moss and Crushed Olive.  I die cut the flower and then trimmed out the leaves by hand as there are no dies for those images.  I found a piece of patterned paper that had similar colors in it and die cut it with a rectangle die from A Jillian Vance Design.  Because I wanted to be able to see the pattern on the paper I die cut some of the elements in the sketch from vellum.  They were adhered with glue in strategic places and then I arranged the flower and leaves.  I had a small piece of the patterned paper left that was large enough to die cut and stamp with the sentiment before adhering it to my card.   You can see the stamp and die set in my photo so if any one knows what it is called, please let me know!

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  I have had a beautiful die set from Spellbinders for quite sometime now that I have not used.  It features a four layer butterfly and lots of small flowers and leaves to add as embellishments, as well as a large sentiment.  I used the butterfly dies and a few of the other dies, as well.  I die cut the butterfly from white cardstock for the bottom layer and then green and orange cardstocks for the second and third layers.  The final layer was die cut from red glitter paper.  I also die cut the strip elements in the sketch from the same cardstocks using sentiment strip dies from A Jillian Vance Design.   The orange and green strips were popped up with foam dimensionals and the red glitter strip flat to the card base.  I adhered the butterfly and a small flower/leaves embellishment that I made.   The sentiment was hot foiled using my Glimmer Hot Foil system and silver foil.  I die cut the sentiment with a banner die that comes with the sentiment set I used.    I then slid the sentiment in under the butterfly as you see.   This card is really bright, but I love how it turned out.   Spellbinders is having a special going on right now.  Spend $100 and you will get a card kit for free!  The Spellbinders card kits are jam packed with cards, envelopes, patterned paper, embellishments, adhesive, etc.!   Just click on the banner to be taken to the Spellbinders website.  (Affiliate link used at no cost to you.  Thank you if you make a purchase through my link.)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!