The Flight Continues

I really find it interesting knowing the story behind projects. Inspiration comes from many sources: our surroundings, personal experiences, favorite colors, images or designs, and even favorite products. These are but a few of the many things that can inspire a project. This card creation was designed to thank so many people who thoughtfully and generously reached out to our family during the loss of my mother-in-law, Jackie.

Mom’s favorite color was cobalt blue, but she just loved blue in general, so that is what I made it the main color used on this thank you note. I wanted to include some symbolism of her transition from her life here to a life in heaven. I believe this montage of butterflies does just that.

Supplies: (Stampin’ Up!®) Asstd. Blue Cardstock; Sizzlits Beautiful Wings Die; Thanks So Much verse; Finial Press Texture Embossing Plate; (Offray) Blue Satin ribbon; (Glue Arts) Extreme Adhesive Squares and Glue Glider™ Pro with high tac adhesive cartridge.

Butterflies also are a visual symbol for me of the life/death/after life transition since my uncle’s death in 2000. I would often get butterfly visits on my walks and have many other tales of this connection, too. Using a monochromatic color palette (different shades of the same color) creates a very elegant look that you can use in all your card designs. The cascading size of the butterflies adds movement and interest. This also serves to remind us that even though a loved one’s presence fades, the memories remain even though their flight continues.

I wanted to share another butterfly card created by fellow card designer, Diane Bove. She created these 3-D butterflies using a brush from my Stylish Butterflies set combined with patterned background.

Here is a preview of that set art which contains, editable eps, jpeg, png and abr (brush files).

The set contains 3 butterflies: one solid, one with transparent swirls to use over color or patterned backgrounds digitally and one butterfly with white swirls. If you use the photoshop brush file you can change the black to a color or patterned background. I will be creating some tutorials to show you how you can use digital brushes and png art in Photoshop. So check back to my blog for updates!

Let your creativity take flight with using a butterfly on your next card creation.

A Growing Appreciation

Summer time, I love creating projects with flowers. This is a card/gift set I made before the end of the last school year for the school nurse who took such extra good care of Kylie. We were sad to see her retire. Hopefully, it is a cheerful reminder at home of the lives she touched with her nurturing.

The mini flowerpot was something I picked up at JoAnn's and added some accents of my own. And the card was made from a shared embellishment of floral punched patterned papers that my SU demonstrator friend, Ree, gave to me. I made an uneven bi-fold card and used Glue Art's adhesive squares on all of the 3-D accents on the card and flower pot. For the rest, I used my trusty companion, the Glue Glider™ Pro with perma tac adhesive.The beautiful butteflies were diecut using the Sizzlit Beautiful Wings die from Stampin’ Up!® and I also used the Floral Fusion die to create my own stacked flower which was added onto a Heidi Grace stick pin. The scallop border punch and verse used on the card are also from Stampin’ Up!. Try out using your favorite diecuts an punches with both solid and patterned papers for a bit of variety. And if you have a growing appreciation for someone in your life, I encourage you to create a simple car and gift set like this! All it takes is some ribbon, some paper, a few punches and your own creative touch!

My kind of Tweeting!

Ahhh, the craze of social media and networking! It is a love/hate relationship for me. You won't find this girl tweeting, so the closest thing to it is my Take Flight set, my most current collection at Mygrafico. This one has some fun graphic elements and verses that are perfect for Father's Day card or scrapbook page! Safe travels over the Memorial Day Weekend and have fun celebrating sensibly!

Mother’s Day Stitchery

Yesterday I finished up on some Mother’s Day cards I made using my newest digi stamp set called “Sew” Long Flowers. I am providing a link to my sample album for this set and samples of the Mom Stitched Verse freebie that I told you about in yesterday’s post. If you click on the card photo you can read a description of what I used and how I created these. They are also in the photo gallery on MyGrafico so be sure to check them out and leave me comments. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. Be sure to check out the other samples! These cards, below, use the cute patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket’s Earth Love Mini Deck papers. I also posted some tips in my photo descriptions on using Glue Arts adhesives for attaching some of the 3-D elements.