Fly, Blackbird Fly

Had this stamp for ages, loved the image, not got around to using it before. I'm very big on crows, ravens & so on.




I stamped the image in Versafine Onyx Black, then started sponging on Red inks- I used a mix of DI & Adirondacks.  I started with Festive Berries, working in from the edges, letting it fade out towards the centre.

At this point, I punched a circle out of a Post-it note, and placed it in the central pale area. I didn't want a completely white moon behind the tree. I followed on with Barn Door, then Red Pepper.

After these inks, I trimmed my image down to size, so I wouldn't lose the darker edges later.Then I carried on, adding darker reds- Cranberry, Raisin and finally Aged Mahogany. The two types of ink blend together without any problems, which greatly increases possibilities.

The finished image, with the mask removed, to give me a pale red moon, and some area of lighter colour behind the main bird.
 Matted this onto black card, then I wanted a red matt for that. The only red to hand was far too bright, so I cut my mat to size, and sponged the outside with Red Pepper & Aged Mahogany to bring it closer to what I wanted.

I thought that it needed a background, so I took a sheet of black pearl paper & stamped the image again, randomly around the outside in Versamark. I heat embossed this with Black detail powder.





I stuck this to the card front with DST, and mounted the image onto it.

I took a phrase that fits the image from another stamp set, Dark Boundaries, stamped it in Black Versafine onto paper & inked it with reds again.









Final addition was a Bird embellishment,  from Riverside Beads,which I coated in Versamark & Black glitter embossing powder, and stuck down with a little Pinflair Glue gel.







Supplies:
Stampendous Cling Stamp Crowscape
Cherry Pie Artstamps,  Dark Boundaries, De Stempelwinkel.
Adirondack inkpads, reds
Distress Inkpads, reds
Versafine Onyx Black
Versamark Pad
Black detail embossing powder

WOYWW #213

Another week been & gone- where do they go to?And into July- half a year flown by. Still, that does mean another round of WOYWW, over at The Stamping Ground, with the adorable Julia! My desk offering for this week, the leftover mess from playing with the Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly stamp, used in the previous posts.Really Useful box of sponges (Make up sponges, Poundland), some baby wipes, Distress Inkpads, a card & some more images on the easel. A couple of tags, embossing powder,scissors, heat gun. On my OTT lite, my name badge label from the crop. Bottle of water, for watering my Bamboo, behind it, and filling misters & so on.Not enough caffeine in it for drinking, lol.
OK, enabler alert again, sorry ladies. Called in at The Works (again) at the weekend, and they have loads of assorted Papier Mache boxes in there, and these awesome little drawer boxes.

And at 2 quid a throw, not going to break the bank.





 A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of a planter I'd done, (another poundstore bargain, stacking planters). Everything in it has gone a bit mad:



Just Petunias & lobelias, and a Fuchsia in the top. I shall be looking to get some more next year, when they have them back. They're really good-this pic is a larger version that I've filled with herb seeds. Its got four sections, the one with the flowers in has three. They just stack one on top of another, so you can layer it as tall as you want.









Another garden shot, its an Elderberry, a black-leaved version (now theres a surprise, from me)- the flowers are a lovely pink colour, instead of the usual creamy white.

So thats me  done, fairly short & sweet. Have a really good week all.

Swallowtail Tags

These came about as I wasn't happy with the colouring on one of my butterflies. It was the first one I tried, and got a few ink lines from not having the sponge folded properly.

I cut the image down to two tag shapes,positioning the wings to one side of the tag, which got rid of the centre piece, where the smudges were. I decided I would overstamp with the French Script stamp, in Versafine Black. What I didn't do was mask the butterfly first. This sort of did & didn't work. It worked well because the script appears to flow behind the butterfly, but didn't work as the black Versafine didn't wipe cleanly off the embossing. Probably would have worked better if I'd used a different colour.

 You can see its gone a little grey, but I decided I could live with it. I think if I'd have used a Purple to stamp the script, it wouldn't have been so noticeable. Oh well, we live & learn.













 I've added some butterfly die cuts to the one,  and haven't gone any further with the second yet. Just goes to show, there is often a way of retrieving mistakes before they get binned.




 Supplies:
Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly
Stampin Up French Script
 DI in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord & Shaded Lilac
Versamark
White Embossing powder
Onyx Black Versafine
 Butterfly die cuts/punches

Triple Stamping Butterfly

As the Swallowtail is such a large stamp, I was curious to see if I could get this to work. I cut three stamping pieces, based on the size of the stamp. They were: 6x 4 3/4,5x 3 3/4 and 4x 2 3/4. The mat layers are 1/4" bigger than the stamping pieces.( 6 1/4 x 5, etc)
 Layered the stamping pieces on top of each other, holding them together with re-positionable tape. Then I stamped & embossed the butterfly in Versamark & White embossing powder, and coloured him in the same way as the others.
 Tip here, separate the layers as you heat emboss them, as the heat makes the re-positionable tape separate, and you have sheets of card sliding everywhere.

 This one was coloured with DI in Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade.  I matted all the layers up, and it fitted together quite well.  The base card is covered in a sheet of DP, Dovecraft Earthtones, 8&8 pad..  I have masses of paper I never get around to using! I grabbed a sheet from a 6x6 pad, by K & co, called Hydrangea stripe. I tore it at an angle, and sponged Spiced Marmalade around the edges, then ran it through an embossing folder with butterflies on. I think it was a magazine freebie. I added this to the left hand side then mounted the butterfly panel on top.  A greeting stamped in Spiced Marmalade and matted in the same way finishes it off.

Supplies:
Swallowtail Butterfly, Stampin Up
DI in Squeezed lemonade,Mustard Seed & Spiced Marmalade
 Versamark
 White Embossing Powder

Butterfly Overload

Thought it was about time I tried out my Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly stamp, and this is one of a few cards made last night with it. Seeing a Pinterest card, done using the Versamark resist technique, I thought I'd give it a go. 
 One thing I was curious about was did it have to be Versamark & white embossing powder? So I did three butterflys, one with Versamark/white, one with clear embossing ink/white, and a third with Brilliance Pearlescent white Pigment ink & White embossing powder.With this technique, you stamp in Versamark onto card then heat emboss using white powder. After that you sponge ink over the Butterfly and the white embossing resists the ink.

The three butterflies in the picture, top left Versamark/white, the top right Clear embossing ink & white and the bottom one is Brilliance & White. Which you can see didn't work too well. Maybe the pad is a bit dry- didn't hold enough embossing powder, but there really isn't anything to choose between the Versamark or Clear embossing ink.The card I saw, the lady sponged the ink on in circular motions, using Sponge Daubers. I don't have any of those, so I just used small pieces of make up sponge. She also didn't worry about going over the edge of the Butterfly, as this gives it a sort of shadow, as if the butterfly is raised up.For the sponging I used DI in Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac & Dusty Concord.For the card at the top, I just trimmed it to size, matted it onto two shades of purple card, wrapped a purple spotted organza ribbon around it, tied in a knot and mounted it to the card front. Then I punched out three small butterflies and added them to the corners with a bit of Purple Stickles down their bodies.

 I quite like how they came out, so I did another one, This time I lined up three tags side by side, sticking them to my scrap paper with a bit of re-positionable tape. You can probably see the Butterfly looks a bit of a funny grey colour. Thats what happens when you loose track of whats on your desk! I stamped this one in Black Versafine, intending to heat emboss in clear powder- I just picked up the jar on my table and sprinkled it on. It was only when I started to heat it, and it was turning whiteish, that I remembered the powder on my desk was White, not clear! Well, they both look the same in the jar, lol. So I forged ahead, stamping a Post-it mask for the Butterfly, then overstamping in Versafine Black again, the Script Stampin Up stamp.Needed to stamp it twice to cover the image, I think I could have lined it up a bit better, to be honest.
 For the sponging this time, I stuck with DI, but used Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers & Faded Jeans. The Peacock Feathers is a very strong colour, and a little goes a VERY long way!
  I also added sponging around the edge of the three tags, again with Faded Jeans.To be honest, despite him being a funny colour, it didn't come out too badly. I matted the three tags onto dark blue card, and trimmed it to the shape of the tags. This I mounted onto an offwhite card base.


I thought it needed something extra, so I stamped the butterfly again and heat embossed in white, onto some thick vellum.
After I cut it out, I sponged the back of the vellum with the same three DI's I'd used on the main butterfly,which I heat set before going any further. Then mounted him on top of the tags with a line of Pinflair glue gel down his body, and the inner sides of his wings.

This Swallowtail is a huge stamp, 5 1/2x 4 1/4 inches, and I don't actually have an acrylic block big enough! What I do have though, is some thinner acrylic plates, which I use with my Stamp Positioner. I already have one, but I ordered some more off an e-bay supplier recently. They do them to any size you want, really cheap, which was cool. So I used one of those for it. Works fine too. I did notice that there is a lot of excess rubber around the stamp, they are not as close cut as some are.
 One video I watched, I noticed the stamper kept getting marks around the bottom of the 'tails', so I trimmed it there. When using clear ink on it, I'd advise going around the edges with a cotton bud, as its way too easy to get excess ink, even when applying the inkpad to the stamp, rather than the stamp to the inkpad.But I am impressed with the stamp quality, both give a beautifully clear impression.

Supplies:
 Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly
Stampin Up French Script
Distress Inkpads: Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord,Shaded Lilac, Faded Jeans,Peacock Feathers &Tumbled Glass.
 Versamark, or Clear Embossing Inkpad.
 White Detail embossing powder.
 Black Versafine inkpad.
Vellum, a thick quality.
White card & tags.
Sponges/sponge daubers.
Heat Gun.