Hello friends,
I'm sorry that I have not posted anything for I think 10 days or so. I am going through a medication change and well let's just say the new medication does not like me - lol. I am sure that it will get better soon--positive thoughts!!!
As promised I am going to show you a card using the Butterfly Beauty dies. I got this idea from France Martin and she got it from someone else. This is called casing a card. For the longest time I did not know what it meant to CASE a card. So if you're like I was it means Create and Share Everywhere. I made this card for my sister-in-law's birthday. She is so awesome so I wanted to make her a special card.
It is 8 1/2" X 5 1/2" scored at 4 1/4". You can use any kind of paper for the front of the card as long as it is double sided. It measures 5 1/4 " X 4". You make a pencil mark in the middle at 2 5/8" and then cut down or across - however you are holding your paper - 2". From there you fold it back making sure to get a point at the corner. Use a bone folder to get a crisp line. Depending on the colours that you have chosen you can adhere a white piece of card stock cut to 5 1/4" X 4" to the front of the card and then adhere the printed paper on top. I wanted the black so I skipped that step. You will also want to adhere the flaps so they stay down.
For the inside
you will want to use a piece of white card stock measuring 8 1/4" X 5 1/4". You should score this at 2 1/4", 4 1/8" and 6". On the middle score line(4 1/8") measure down 3" and make a small pencil mark. Then score from the 2 1/4" score line diagonally down to the 3 ' mark on the middle score line and do the same withe 6" score line so they both meet up at 3". You then fold the card stock in half but don't use a bone folder yet. You then hold together the two other score lines and bring them together as you fold the card. They should be on the inside of the card stock. At this point you use your bone folder. The sharper the crease, the better it will pop out. I know that this sounds all very complicated but when you do it in person it makes sense.
At this point before I adhered the inside I stamped just in case I made a mistake. We all know that everything we stamp is always straight and completely inked like we want it right? LOL That is why they make paper with two sides!! I didn't have a hydrangea stamp so I used a stencil that was the closest looking flower and finger daubed the colour through it. Since the leaves of the front paper were two colours, I used Pear Pizzazz and Granny Apple Green to stamp the stems and leaves and then I stamped Happy Birthday in black as you can see.
And now for the fun part - using the Butterfly Beauty dies!!!!!
As you can see there are a lot of them, 20 in total. I have to be honest, they are $53.00 which may seem pricey. They are high quality metal dies with the biggest die measuring 3 7/8" x 5 1/8". They are so versatile and beautiful - and did I mention that you get 20 dies - that you will seriously NEVER have to buy another butterfly die!
These are the largest dies cut out. As you can see one is more detailed than the other. You would put this die on top on the other more solid one and it looks stunning! I cut my bottom die out of pink and then cut the detailed one out of black and attached them together. I know that you're now saying, ".Mary that is nice but it must have taken ages to poke out all of those little pieces." Well I used the Die Brush Tip that fits in to one of the ends of the Take Your Pick tool and they came out so easily. I think I only had to use my pokey tool for about 4 pieces. The fun -not- part came in attaching the top to the bottom. I learned a lot however and will share it with you.
The easiest way is to use a double sided tape sheet. I know this so off I went. Stampin' Up dies not sell Sizzix sheets anymore as they no longer deal with them and I didn't have any left. I had some from Recollections and I thought how different can they be. Guess what? A whole lot different. I took off the thicker side of the sheet, attached it to my black paper, put the die on top and away I went to use my Big Kick. I ran it through a couple of times for good measure and ten looked at it and it hadn't cut through the adhesive sheet, I tried shims,etc., etc. and finally I said this must have worked it just doesn't look like it. I was poking out the small holes and my poker was getting all gluey because I had to punch out the card stock and the adhesive which wasn't cut all the way through thus pulling off pieces of card stock that belonged there. After about 1/2 hour - which was 25 minutes too long - I gave up. Next I just cut the die using card stock. I have used this technique before so I thought no problem. I put some liquid glue down on my silicone mat and dabbed the glue on to a sponge and then dabbed that on to the back of the die. By the time I had finished the glue on the back of the die was dry.
The card making Gods were not smiling down on me!!!
Not one to give up I went back and looked in my stash. I have some other adhesive sheets. I forget were I bought them but they are called Be Creative. They were not as thick and when I ran the die through it was perfect! I guess that Gods had a change of heart - lol. So lesson learned - DON'T, in my opinion use Recollections sheets unless it is one solid shape.
From there it was easy! Peel off the adhesive and attach it. I like to start with one butterfly and then work over to the other side but you will find you favorite way.
So back to the card finally! Adhere one side of the inside making sure that the scored middles are lined up and then put adhesive on the side looking up at you and fold the card down. Make sure that you don't put adhesive on the pop out part but put it beside it so that it lies flat when then card is opened. Adhere the front paper. Take your butterflies and carefully cut away the 3 small butterflies. Do not cut apart the large butterfly and the top left one. Adhere the three to the front as you wish and then put some glue only along the left hand side on the large butterfly. Attach it as close to the score line as possible and presto you have your pop up butterfly card that when it closes the butterflies lie flat within the card and you do not see them!
So I know that this has been an extremely long blog post and if you're still here thank you and email your address at marydek@yahoo.com and I will send you out a card made with the butterfly dies.
If you wish to purchase the Butterfly Beauty Dies(item #148536, pg.191) or any of the inks that I have used simply go to merrycreations.stampinup.net.
If you have any questions or comments I would love to here from you(except about the length of the post - lol!
Keep cool and do something creative today:)
Mary
