Papercrafting with Polly

Zinnia Bouquet and Butterflies

Zinnia Bouquet

It's flowers again!  With so many flower dies I could blog a different one every day!  Today I am spotlighting the Memory Box dies Zinnia Bouquet and Zinnia Bouquet Background.  The background die makes it easy to cut matching background papers for each flower.

Zinnia Gold Mirror – Memory Box dies Zinnia Bouquet, Zinnia Bouquet Background and Stitched Squares; Memory Box stamp Seeds of Happiness; design inspired by Jean Okimoto.

I wish you could see this "in real life" -- the shiny gold mirror paper really catches your eye.

Zinnia Pink Orange – Memory Box dies Zinnia Bouquet and Zinnia Bouquet Background; Impression Obsession die Cutwork Border; Penny Black clear stamp set Happy Snippets.

This card is similar to the one above with the addition of a border die and ribbon.

 

Zinnia Hello – Memory Box dies Zinnia Bouquet and Zinnia Bouquet Background; Savvy Stamps die Hello; design inspired by Louise Charlton.

Add some rhinestones and a die cut greeting for a quick card.

 

Zinnia Bright Orange – Memory Box dies Zinnia Bouquet, Zinnia Bouquet Background and Stitched Rectangles and Stitched Squares; Memory Box stamp Happy Day; design inspired by Jean Okimoto.

For this card I embossed the flower die (tops) on white cardstock by using the tan rubber mat with my die cut machine.  Then I watercolored each flower and adhered them over the green stems.  I added Wink of Stella glitter pen to the centers.

Now for the Butterflies

Here are the Impression Obsession dies I used on the following cards:

Butterfly Block

Square Ornate Frame

Butterfly Block White – Impression Obsession dies Butterfly Block; Lifestyle Crafts die Nesting Rectangles; design inspired by Kitty Caracciolo.

I cut the Butterfly Block from white cardstock then cut a frame using the nesting rectangle dies.  The picture does not show it well, but I cut the butterfly again and popped it up on top of the first butterfly for added dimension.

 

Butterfly Block Painted – Impression Obsession dies Butterfly Block; design inspired by Kitty Caracciolo.

Wow -- lots of color!  I colored the Butterfly Block with Copic markers and then to add more interest, I took my Versacolor embossing ink pad and "sponged" ink all over the image and heat embossed it in clear.  This really makes the color shimy and vibrant. 

Square Ornate Frame – Impression Obsession dies Square Ornate Frame and Butterfly Block; Memory Box die Stitched Squares; design inspired by Kitty Caracciolo.

The Ornate Square Frame (which I did not use on this card) comes with an ornate corner piece.  I created a frame using the Memory Box Stitched Squares then adhered the corner pieces to the underneath side of the frame.  The butterfly is from the Butterfly Block die.

And a Few Miscellaneous Cards

Here are some more samples I made recently ... I hope they give you some inspiration:

Forest Birthday – Impression Obsession dies Forest and Greetings Edgers; IO Cover-A-Card stamp Bark; design inspired by Kitty Caracciolo.

Super easy card and great for a man's birthday.  I stamped the kraft card front with the Bark stamp (6" x 6") then cut the trees (all one die) and sponged them with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I adhered the trees to the card with scor tape rolls (see Tip below).  The Impression Obsession Edgers dies cut the top of the word out but leave the bottom attached.  I cut the bottom edge to about 1" and adhered the edger word to a strip of brown cardstock.  This strip was popped up with mounting tape.

Tip:  To pop up a very skinny die like the trees on this card, cut a 2" to 3" piece of Scor tape (double sided tape).  I use 1/2" wide or 1" wide Scor tape.  Adhere this tape to a non stick surface like a Craft Mat or your desk surface.  Working with the length of the tape, use your fingertips and roll the tape into a roll.  You can adhere this roll to the back of the trees cutting it to any length you need.

Mountain Birthday Wishes – Impression Obsession dies Boy with Flowers, Mountain Landscape Layers and Puppy Set; design inspired by Harriet Head and Darlene at darscraftycreations.

I wish you could see the card Harriet made using the same paper and mountain die set.  It is truly awesome!  The paper is the Believe collection from Bo Bunny and one of the papers contains all these colors (and more).  The Mountain die set has three mountain profiles so you can "build" your mountains in any number of ways.

Paint Strokes – Paper Smooches clear stamp set I Heart Art; Paper Smooches die Paint Strokes; design inspired by Michele Boyer

Rush Arrow – Poppystamps die Rush Arrow; Penny Black clear stamp set Happy Snippets; design inspired by Jeanne Jachna

I love this very graphic die.  I used the same Bo Bunny Believe paper for the backgrounds behind each arrow.  Another idea for this same layout would be to stamp sentiments in some or all of the arrow openings.  Be creative and have fun!  The die also comes with a skinny arrow die.

 

Boddington Treescape – Memory Box dies Boddington Treescape, Puffy Clouds, Auto Parts, Tiny Village, Stitched Circles and Butterfly Delights; sentiment stamp by Amuse Artstamps; design inspired by Jeanne Jachna

My friend Molly recently moved to Virginia and this is the card I sent her to welcome her to her new home.  I embellished the Boddington Treescape scene with cars, houses, sun, clouds, butterflies and a sentiment.

 

Wedding Cake Card – Impression Obsession dies Wedding Cake and Love Doves; Spellbinders label die

Here are the dies:

Wedding Cake Card – Impression Obsession dies Wedding Cake and Love Doves; Spellbinders label die

 I am sorry there is a shadow on the middle and top of this card. 

Adhesive Tip:  Adhering the two trim pieces on each cake layer can be very tedious and messy if you use glue.  White shows every imperfection -- ask me why the my first card took forever to complete!  So my tip is to use Stick It Adhesive Paper.  Take a piece of cardstock, white in this case, and adhere it to one side of a Stick It double sided adhesive sheet.  Cut the cardstock away from the Stick it sheet and die cut the trim pieces from this now self adhesive paper.  Important: Be sure to cut the cardstock side so the adhesive side is the back of the die cut.

Now all your tiny trim pieces are self-adhesive and easy to apply to your cake layers.

If that's not clear, stop in and I will show you how to work with Stick It.  It is sold in a packet of 5 sheets (8" X 12¼").

Dimension Tip:  It is hard to tell in this photo, but the cake layers are curved.  To do this I put a double layer of  foam tape behind the center of each cake layer.  I also added dimension to the wedding couple by die cutting three extra couples from chipboard, gluing them all together then coloring the sides of the chipboard black. 

I added dimension to the doves, the cake layers and cake stand by die cutting these pieces from fun foam and gluing the cardstock die cuts to the top of the foam.

Here's another card made with the same Wedding Cake die.  This one also features the Impression Obsession dies Ornate Frame Rectangle and tiny flowers.

Sunshine Birdhouse – Taylored Expressions die Little Bits Birdhouse, Picket Fence and Picture Perfect – Sunny Days; TE embossing folder Walking on Sunshine; Memory Box die Marshmallow Clouds, Resting Birds and Mini Heart Collection; design inspired by Jean Manis.

Just a happy and colorful card that anyone would love to get.

 

I know it's hot and you are probably burrowing into your air-conditioned home, but should you decide to pop out and shop at The Stamp Act, you will be rewarded with a FREE make and take card that's perfect for summer.  I would love to be relaxing in a hammock with a cool glass of lemonade, a good book and a powerful fan! 

Stop in soon!

 

 

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Beautiful Butterflies

I suppose it's no surprise that I like to take one product and make many samples so I can show you how to stretch your dies.  Today I want to share with you many samples using two Memory Box dies:

Cascadia Butterflies

 

Leavenworth Butterflies

The good news about these dies is that you get a small, medium and large butterfly on one die.  However, the dies are all one piece meaning you cannot use one butterfly separately without cutting it out.  I have rarely found this to be a problem versus the advantage of having three size butterflies at my fingertips.

Let's take a look at the samples.

Dreams Take Flight

For this card I cut the Cascadia Butterflies from four colors of cardstock then stenciled each butterfly with a tone on tone ink using Memory Box stencils Mesh and Disperse.  The dotted border was die cut with Penny Black die Dots and Swirls and the sentiment  added using Penny Black clear stamp set Snippets.  I embellished some of the butterflies with silver Metal Decor dots from Hero Arts.  Design inspired by Deborah Nolan.

  You & Me

I cut the focal panel using Memory Box die Stitched Rectangles then cut two squares each from teal and light green cardstock (1.75") and rounded two corners on each square.  I positioned these in the upper center of the panel and adhered them using foam tape.  I  mounted the largest butterfly, cut from metallic gold cardstock, on top of the squares and die cut the sentiment from the same gold cardstock.  This is a cute and easy card and amenable to any color scheme and sentiment.

Lavender Butterflies

I love the colors on this card -- the lavender butterflies floating on the teal background with green dotted accents is so spring like.  The opening on the upper left corner of the card is cut with Memory Box die Distressed Baptisia Collage.  The greenery is cut with Memory Box die Tall Bamboo and the butterflies with MB Cascadia.  I added the sentiment with Penny Black clear stamp set Happy Snippets. Design inspired by Deborah Nolan

White on White

IRL this card is much more impressive -- it just doesn't photograph well.  For this card I cut several Memory Box Cascadia and Leavenworth Butterflies from white cardstock and adhered them to a white card.  I then cut the Cascadia large butterfly from pink, yellow and blue cardstock and adhered a large Leavenworth butterfly cut from white cardstock over them. You could embellish the card with the butterfly bodies or crytals if desired.  Design inspired by Lindsay Amrhein

  Vellum

I made three variations on this design.  I die cut the focal panel with Memory Box die Stitched Rectangles and sponged it with Distress and Memento inks.  Next I cut the Cascadia Butterflies from vellum and sponged them with ink (blue, pink or yellow) then sandwiched them between the Leavenworth Butterflies and butterfly bodies both cut from black cardstock.  The cards were finished with a sentiment from Penny Black clear stamp set Snippets stamped on black cardstock and embossed in white.  The word "Smile" was cut with the Impression Obsession die Instant Photo Frame (smile) and Penny Black die Hooray Words.  Design inspired by Jean Okimoto.

  Stitched

Please enlarge the photo to see the stitched border I die cut along the bottom of the green panels using Paper Smooches die Stitched.  I added one butterfly and a "Hello" sentiment die cut with Savvy Stamps die Hello.  Design inspired by Judy Tuck.

  Shaker

Make a quick shaker card with the Cascadia Butterflies by cutting them from white cardstock (die cut with Memory Box Stitched Rectangles) and from a piece of fun foam.  Stamp sentiment (from Penny Black clear stamp set Snippets) on the white cardstock before proceeding.  Tape a piece of acetate behind the openings on the white cardstock then tape the fun foam piece to the acetate.  Fill the openings with tiny beads, stars and glitter and cover the openings with a piece of scrap cardstock.  Center the shaker on green plaid paper and center this piece on flowered paper cut the same size as an A2 card.  A beautiful card for a lucky recipient.  

Sale ... Sale ... Sale

I pulled hundreds of items off the racks for the sale table so stop in soon and shop the bargains!  The sale goes on until everything is sold.

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