Cardboard Butterfly Challenge

Enter Eye Connect Crafts'
March Design Challenge!

My friend Donna Berlanda, who is such an encourager, posted a link to this contest over on the Eye Connect Crafts site as a Facebook comment for my postcard butterflies. The rules are you have to make something out of chipboard or cardboard. I thought, Donna knows me well, it's right up my alley!

I dug into my stash of cardboard and stamped it with the large butterfly with text background that came in Inkadinkado's cling stamp set called Insect Amalgam Cling Set #60-60219 (link at the bottom). As you can see, it's a very good-sized stamp. It's what makes it so fun to color with the Gelatos and other watercolor crayons.

Inkadinkado Insect Amalgam Cling Set #60-60219

After stamping, I painted on a couple of coats of Glue N' Seal by Ranger. This seals the surface and allows the Gelatos to move and blend smoothly. I trimmed away the blank margarine and ended up with a piece approximately 6"x6" inches. I roughed up the edges by running the blade of my scissors across them. It gives them the natural look I like so much.

I cut a larger piece of cardboard and gave it a couple of coats of Glue N' Seal as well. I stamped it with the text part of the butterfly stamp, tricky, but it worked. I took a black Gelato and drew a square where the butterfly would be placed, then blended it out so it gave it depth after the butterfly piece was in place.

I cut a small square of corrugated cardboard and backed the butterfly with it, then attached that to the piece of cardboard with stamped texted. The corrugated piece was added to pop it up some so it would stand out better after framing.

My daughter Valerie gave me a shadow box with a black frame (thank you, Val!) for me to frame everything.

I didn't care for the fuzzy black background of the frame, so I tore it off and sanded the backboard, gave it a coat of white gesso and a couple of coats of parchment-colored acrylic paint.

When everything was dry, I put adhesive and foam squares on the back and adhered it to the frame backboard.

Here's my finished butterfly! I photographed it on my desk and in my back yard in several areas to try and place it in a good light. But what I ended up doing was only confusing myself because I can't decide which one I like best. Ha!

It's difficult to convey the depth of the shadow box.

My father made this pagoda in the 1970s for one of my best friends' parents. (We were in the ceramic business at the time.) After her mother passed away, she gave it to me. I love having it in the yard. And when the tiny light bulb isn't out, it glows a nifty green.

I'm off to enter the contest. Wish me luck!

Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may make a tiny commission if you decide to make a purchase. The products I link to are those that I believe in, regardless of any commission I may make from them. My goal is to help you easily find the tools, products, or other items that you will need to complete your project.

Butterfly In The Sky...

Bet you're singing the Reading Rainbow song, aren't ya?

I have had this stamp for a while now, but I never knew what to do with it. So I took it out and stamped a few images onto mixed media paper and decided Gelatos and other watercolor crayons might be fun to use.

I was right, I absolutely loved making these! I put a coat of Glue N' Seal on them because it allows for blending. Without sealing it, (depending on the paper), they just don't move around well enough to get these results. You can seal your paper with any type of decoupage medium such as Mod Podge or Deco-Page. I prefer a matt finish, but glossy would work just as well.

When they were finished I realized they'd make great postcards, so I backed them with cardstock, drew a line down the middle and did a little stamping.

You can see the mixture of watercolor crayons I used below. I probably have too many.

It's rare I do a craft over and over, unless it's for a specific group project. But I enjoyed making these so much, I'm going to make another set.


Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may make a tiny commission if you decide to make a purchase. The products I link to are those that I believe in, regardless of any commission I may make from them. My goal is to help you easily find the tools, products, or other items that you will need to complete your project.

Playing and Catch-up Time

Who would have thought crepe paper could be so pretty?

One of the reasons I like mixed media is because of all the texture. I'm amazed crepe paper and a little paint fills that category quite abundantly. We also created texture in the latest Mixed Media Morsels exercises.

My daughter Valerie made two rain chains out of beach glass and wire! They're located at each end of my craft room. They got quite a workout the first night they were up. I love them so much.

Sneaking in a little Molly here. She's more playful and lovable as ever! She loves her squeaky toys, but the bows, not so much.

I've been admiring all of the Bible art journaling I've been seeing on-line and have been wanting to try it. I felt very intimidated by it, maybe because of the full-sized pages, I don't know. So when I spotted little New Testaments at the Dollar Store, I was excited about using one. I totally love what I did, although it's quite busy. I learned a lot and can't wait to do another page.

I am hoping that combining my love of God and arts and crafts, I can learn to hide the word in my heart easier than trying to just memorize what He has to say. And it's a lot of fun!

A Year

Pacific Grove, Asilomar

February 11, 2016, marked a year since my sister has been gone from our lives. I can't believe it's been that long since I lost my sister, my person. I miss her every single day.

My daughters, niece (Martha's daughter), and I went to Pacific Grove and left flowers and a wildly painted cross Valerie made (which is so like her Ant Mart). What started out as a difficult day, turned out to be a lovely one spent with my favorite people. Martha would have loved it.

Journal52 2016 Is Coming Along

Prompts 4 and 5

This was fun but challenging. I dry embossed the paper to give it some depth and mimic the surface of the moon. Then came a coating of paints and embossing powder. I think the gold was a good choice. Dawn gave me moon stickers in different phases, so that's when I got the idea about life having phases.

For Week 5, we had a choice between monochromatic or psychedelic. When given the chance, I'll always go with color. Besides, I wanted to use my new watercolor gel crayons I purchased at Target in the worst way! I love them! Go immediately to Target if you can for a set of your own. They're only $3.99 and are right up there with the Gellatos watercolor sticks. They can be found in the school supply section.

I'm loving how my little twinchies look in the binder!

It's especially cool because you can see the journaling on the other side without having to take them out of the sleeves.

Bonus, this smaller size has taken a lot of pressure off me. Making a full two-page spread was daunting last year, so I usually only did one. But this year I'm feeling more joy when I do my pages. Go me.

Coloring Harry Potter

Adult Coloring Line!

My daughter has been looking for gemstone stamps and found some great ones to try on Amazon! It's a brand we haven't used yet called Waffle Flower, Gemstone. I'll let you know how they work out.

Our household has gotten into adult coloring books like everyone else. One of our most exciting finds was that HARRY POTTER has a coloring book!

We just heard they came out with a Magical Creatures book as well! We can't wait to get our hands on it.

AND--there's more in the works!

(We're huge Harry Potter fans in our house!)

Harry Potter Magical Places & Characters Coloring Book, release date March 29th:

Harry Potter Artifacts Coloring Book, release date June 28th:

Harry Potter Poster Coloring Book, release date March 29th:

Harry Potter Postcard Coloring Book, release date March 29th:

Have you gotten into the adult coloring book fad? What are you favorites?

Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may make a tiny commission if you decide to make a purchase. The products I link to are those that I believe in, regardless of any commission I may make from them. My goal is to help you easily find the tools, products, or other items that you will need to complete your project.

Run, Molly, Run!

I love Molly so much!

Dawn took this video and I couldn't resist setting it to music.