MultiColour Stamping with Patchwork Butterflies

A quick and easy card to make for Mother's Day using a big beautiful butterfly with different background stamps. A pretty card that can be used to say anything  at all.

For these cards, you only need a few treasures...

- Strathmore Paper

- Darkroom Door collage stamp, Patchwork Butterfly

- Darkroom Door background stamp, Tribal

... all background stamps by Darkroom Door

- Tim Holtz stamps, Patchwork Background and Crazy Talk

... all background stamps by Tim Holtz

- Distress Ink and Oxide Pads

- Acrylic Stamping Block or Stamp Platform

- Washi Tape

- Black Fudegokochi Fine Point Brush Pen

- Tim Holtz Non Stick Micro Serrated Scissors

- Dylusions Glue Stick

Everything (and more) is available at www.shop.artbyjenny.com.au.

Instructions...

Choose two ink pads in similar tones. In the pic above I used Distress Oxide Tattered Rose and Lipstick. Other combinations I used were Antique Linen and Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Iced Spruce, Antique Linen (its my current fave, could you tell?) and Fossilized Amber.

For stamping multiple colours at the same time, ink up part of the stamp in one colour and the remaining rubber with the other colour. Its not necessary to be precise as its just a background.

Even though some combinations may show a strong contrast between the two colours, where the colours meet isn't really noticeable once the butterfly is stamped.

Some of the backgrounds had borders made of dashed lines (to represent stitches) hand drawn with black pen. You can always use a ruler if you want straight lines.

The Patchwork Butterfly by Darkroom Door was stamped in two colours before printing as well.
First I inked the wings with Distress Oxide Walnut Stain, then used Black Soot for the body and antennae.
To get the black ink only over the centre of the design, hold the inkpad at an angle, tilted so the corner and edges of the inkpad are touching the surface. Again, its not a precise thing, and you can always re-ink the wings with the brown before pressing the butterfly onto the card.

I've also used Wilted Violet with the Black Soot to compliment the pink background shown earlier.
You can use any colours you want for this technique. Choose the colours that make you smile :)

For a guide, keep the warm colours with warms (reds, oranges, golden yellows) and cool colours with cools (greens, blues, lemon yellows). The warms and cools are fine to have other colours (black, brown, purple, white) with them to compliment, enhance, add contrast and interest.

Mother Nature is the perfect example of what colours to put together - trees (green, black, brown), sky (blue, white, red, orange, purple), rainbow (everything). When she puts contrasting colours together, its not usually an equal amount - just a hint of red with green (berries on trees) or hints of orange with blue (sunsets).

Choose colours that make you smile :)

Across the middle of the cards with the Patchwork Background stamps, I used Tim Holtz Washi Tape from the Aristocrat set. I like how it compliments the sewing and patchwork theme.

To make the border strips, I stamped the second larger design from the Tim Holtz Patchwork Backgrounds Stamps in Distress Oxide Iced Spruce onto mixed media card. Once it dried, it was trimmed it into rows of hexagons to add on the edges of the cards.

There are hundreds of greetings that can be used on a card. I've used "hello friend" from the Tim Holtz Stamps, Crazy Talk (stamped in Black Soot).

The cards I made using the DD Tribal Background Stamp had the thinner tape from Dylusions Designer Tape. Use a sharp craft knife, carefully trim around the butterfly wing. Washi tape is semi-transparent, so its easy to see where to cut.

I've added two rows of tape to the Tribal cards. At the moment, these ones have no message on the front... this gives flexibility of who the card is for and what its going to say. But just quietly, one will be saying Happy Mother's Day! Shhh, don't tell her :)

Change the colours and you've made a card that looks exactly the same but different!

The above pic shows the four different cards made using this technique. You can mix and match the background stamps to create an endless array of beautiful butterfly cards.

More Ideas...
1... If you don't want the background to show through the butterfly, it just adds one more step. Stamp the butterfly onto the card and again on a piece of plain paper. Turn the second butterfly into a mask by trimming around its shape. Place this over the image on the card before printing with the background stamp.

2... Colour in the wings with your favourite solvent based markers (as watercolour pens will blur the design unless you spray with a fixative).

3... Stamp the butterfly onto mixed media paper, trim around the design and glue onto the background. Make tiny scraps of card folded in a concertina fashion and glue them under the wings to give them lift. The tiny zigzagging pieces go flat for inside an envelope and then pop up when on display.

There are no limits to cardmaking... get creative and have fun :)

If you need a hand, sing out anytime. I'm here to help as well as sell you awesome arty treasures!

Happy Creative Day!
:)
Jenny
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