Monday 18 July 2011

Exploding Butterflies!

Don't worry I haven't been running around torturing innocent creatures, I've just been busy making my MIL's 70th Birthday card! Wow it's been a mission! Ever start a project and wish you hadn't? Well this was one of those!!! I honestly never thought I'd say this, but by the time I'd finished I was sick of the sight of butterflies!You would not believe how many times I thought I'd got enough butterflies only to discover that I needed more! It wouldn't have been so bad if I'd been my usual slap happy untidy crafting self, but in an attempt to keep my craft mess under control I've started tidying up as I go. So you guessed it I had to dig the stamps, embossing powders, paints etc out each time! If I make one of these again, I will leave everything out and also take a little more care when cutting around the butterfly's antennae!!! I'll warn you now, this post is both butterfly and picture heavy so my apologies on both counts ;o)

Anyway, this post is gonna be long enough without me blathering on, so I'll move things along! I wanted to make a something a little special for the MIL's milestone birthday, so I decided upon an exploding box using her favourite colours. I've made exploding boxes with floating butterflies in the past but not on this scale and certainly not using hand stamped, coloured and cut images!!! All I have to do now is hope that she likes it! Anyway, here it is:


The box is made from a  9" square piece of cardstock which has been covered with embossed and sanded Core-dinations card. I've distressed the edges of the cardstock very lightly before gluing the panels into place.


The flowers have been glittered before being mounted onto the box using silicone glue. I cut the wire stems from the flowers and used them to to make the glass pearl tipped tendrils.


I stamped the butterflies using Versamark Ink and then heat embossed them with a black glitter embossing powder. Hopefully you can see from this picture that the butterflies have been painted with mica paints which gives a really pretty pearlescent luminosity to them. I've added Stickles to edges of the wings and Glossy Accents to the bodies. I've also stamped and painted the reverse side of the butterflies and coloured the edges.


The sentiment has been computer generated and cut out using my nesties. I've then inked the edges with distress ink and given it a blast of Glimmer Mist.


The numerals have been die cut from th left over scraps of Core-dinations card, lightly sanded to reveal the core colour in places and then liberally covered in Stickles to give dimension and of course that all important glitz and glimmer!

Tools
Martha Stewart Scoreboard
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix/Tim Holtz Vintage Market Place Die
Sizzix Swirls & Dots Embossing Folder
Spellbinders Nestabilities - Labels 8
Heat Gun

Materials
Image - EJ Crafts
Sentiment - Wishes by TLC
White card - The Papermill
Core-dinations Whitewash Card
Flowers - from stash
Glass Pearls - from stash
Stickles - Star Dust, Platinum
Glossy Accents
Glimmer Mist - Dazling Diamond
Heat It Up Black Glitter Embossing Powder
Mica Paints
Distress Ink - Dusty Concord

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges
By The Cute & Girly - Things with wings
Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - Embossing
The Stampman - Anything Tim
CRAFT - Butterflies
PaperPlay Challenges - Things with wings
The Rubber Cafe - Spellbinders
Crafts & Me - Summer time
My Mum's Craft Shop - Swirls & Pearls
The Paper Shelter - Things with wings
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Little Claire's Designs - Things with wings

32 comments:

  1. WOW Claire this is amazing hun i bet she totally loves it
    Hugs J xxxxx

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  2. oh wow hun this is just stunning,honest the detail on this is just brilliant and she will just love love this I know I would,those butterflies are just amazing hugs cherylxxxx

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  3. Wow!! I have just had my 70th birthday, and never got anything like that - it is amazing

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  4. WOW thats absolutely stunning ,she will treasure it,this is one Birthday card that wont be thrown away,It will be displayed with pride.

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  5. wow that looks super awesome...

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  6. Another Wow! from me. That is really beautiful and must have taken ages. From your pictures we can't even see how the butterflies are mounted, so they really look as though they are flying. Brilliant! I'm sure your MIL will love it and be showing everyone!

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  7. Claire - I am just speechless. I can't even begin to imagine the patience and love gone into this (and a few naughty words?) So worth the effort though - truly a masterpiece!

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  8. Oh WOW! Claire, this is just amazing, such a stunning keepsake for your mil x

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  9. wow this is so beautiful Claire! love those butterflies :) X

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  10. Absolutely amazing, you sure have made an effort your MIL is sure to appreciate :)

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  11. OH WOW Claire!

    What a stunning piece and I can fully understand why you are butterfly shy at the moment!!

    Im sure it will bring tears to her eyes when she sees it! It definitely shows how special she is and there's no amount of money that can buy that!

    Keryn x

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  12. Absolutely stunning. What a lovely gift, she will be so pleased and treasure it always.

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  13. oh wow this is amazing, love all the butterflies absolutely gorgeous, your MIL will love...I do:)

    Thank you for joining us at MMCS

    sue
    xx

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  14. Absolutely gorgeous, she will love it, thanks for joining us at TPS this week.
    Hugs Debs

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  15. Another wow from me, truly stunning

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  16. wow this is stunning it must have taken hours I'm sur it will be loved

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  17. Wow! What a labour of love! Absolutely stunning. Your m-i-l will be knocked out by this. Thank you for sharing with us at Crafty Ann's and good luck.

    Janet xx

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  18. Absolutely stunning! Your m-i-l is a very lucky lady and I'm sure she'll love it. Thank you for sharing it with us at Crafty Ann's
    Ann x

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  19. Wow, wow, wow! This is beautiful. I love your swirls and pearls and lovely soft colours. Thanks for playing with MMCS this week and Good Luck. x

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  20. Wow this is gorgeous, love the butterflies, yes all of them lol, fab finishes, lovely shimmer, thanks for sharing with us at paper play, hugs Liz xx

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  21. wowserz this is stunning thanks for joining us @ TPS xx

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  22. Holy crap! That's GORGEOUS!!! Nicest card I've seen yet today!

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  23. OMG< this is amazingly beautiful! I love every detail. Thanks so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp

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  24. Wow this is jawdroppingly beautiful. Thanks for sharing it with us at Crafts and Me. Hugs...Mona

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  25. This is one of the coolest cards I have ever seen!Thanks for sharing. Mik

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  26. I love making these boxes too, but know exactly what you mean about the butterflies, you never have enough no matter how many you stamp do you? It's absolutley gorgeous though. I love the embossed sides and the colouring of your butterflies is just stunning. Your Mum will be speechless when she opens it, I'm sure.
    Thanks so much for sharing it with us at The Stampman this time.
    Hugs Lisax

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  27. Gorgeous - what an amazing creation!

    Thanks for joining us at Little Claire Designs.

    Helen x

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  28. A fantastic project. Beautiful!

    Thank you for joining Little Claire blog challenge.

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  29. Oh wow Claire this is absolutely beautiful. I think it must be your best one yet and you've made some lovely cards!! You MIL is going to be so thrilled to recieve this. I think I would want to keep it on display permanently!!!

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  30. Wow this is stunning. Thanks for joining us at Crafty Ann's this time and I hope we see you again soon. Carol DT x

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  31. This is really lovely. Thanks for joining us over at By the Cute and Girly for our Things with Wings challenge and good luck. Hugs, Hanna

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Thank you for your comments, they are very much appreciated.

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