Ranger Distress INk

Color-On-Color Butterflies

Posted on by Lynn Hill

I love the use of butterflies as a symbol of Christ during Easter season. These brilliant insects have very short lives filled with a beauty they share with the world. As a caterpillar, the main purpose is to prepare for the transformation into a butterfly. And that’s what Jesus’ work involved. He spent his life preparing us for his transformation and for ours too. Just like the butterfly, when Christ was in the tomb he wasn’t dead, he was preparing for his metamorphosis. I have never seen a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis but what a wonderful symbol to compare to Christ’s resurrection from the tomb, a beautiful butterfly! He is risen, indeed.

It is still Easter season and since the bunny thing has filled my blog the last two weeks I thought it would be nice to experiment with some of the other symbols Easter has to offer. I love the Brilliant Butterflies stamp set by My Favorite Things and have had a card idea in my head for a while. What better time than Easter to bring my idea to the table.

Easter cards are in high demand around my house so, again this week, I wanted to make a design that I could create in multiples. I started with six pieces of A2 cardstock and set up my Misti to do all of the stamping at once. I wanted the butterflies to hang off the side of the card which meant I couldn’t just use the corner of my Misti as a guide. Instead, I cut a piece of cardstock to 2×5 1/2 inches. I placed the strip of cardstock against the edge of the Misti and then butted my cardstock next to it and arranged the stamps in the pattern I wanted.

I used five colors of Ranger Distress Ink on the butterflies (rainbow order – pink, orange, green, blue, and purple). I made one card using one color at a time but decided the ink would stay wet enough to transfer if I inked all of the butterflies at once. After I inked one card I removed it, placed another one in the Misti, and stamped it the same way.

Not really sure how I wanted to do the background, I attempted a pattern-stamped card and then I made one with a blue sky. The blue sky seemed to create more of a sympathy card. I really like it a lot I was going for a spring/Easter feel and thought it would be fun to try the cloudy sky using the same colors I had used for each butterfly.

I generally use distress inks for straight stamping and oxide inks when I want to blend them on the page. I have found that oxide inks are generally easier to blend, especially when you goof and smack a blob of ink on the paper. However, the distress inks will blend too and for this project I had already started working with distress ink before I decided any blending would be done. I was super happy with the results.

The images I stamped were very concentrated and the cloudy skies were made using the My Favorite Things Mini Cloud Edges with just a light touch on my Taylored Expressions blender brushes. (Speaking of blender brushes, the Taylored Expressions brushes come in a pack of ten brushes and are excellent. I have had mine for about three years and they are still good as new. I love to run my thumb across the face of the brush. They feel soft as butter!) I didn’t mask my butterflies because the color that would cover the butterfly was the same I had stamped them with and I wanted the color to blend across each butterfly. After creating the blue sky and then switching to rainbow, I could feel Easter popping out.

You can see in the picture above that I had the card taped to my work surface so that it wouldn’t move around. This did leave a small white tip on each card where I had placed the tape but I wasn’t too concerned because I was going to cut the card down anyway and knew the white space wouldn’t show. However, as I continued, I decided the project was going quickly enough to just hold the cardstock in place with my hand as I worked my way down the card with each color.

I pulled my Misti out again. I kept the 2×5 1/2 guide in place and slipped my first card back in the Misti. It was easy to align the card by matching the edges of the butterflies I had stamped earlier. With the first card in place I arranged the butterfly bodies and antennas so that they fit properly on each butterfly. I then applied black Versafine pigment ink and stamped the images all at once. When I was ready to stamp the second card I lined up the butterfly edges, reapplied ink, and closed the Misti door – It was a perfect match!

I used My Favorite Things Blueprint #27 to trim the card with a scalloped edge and then applied five colored droplets (one in each of the colors used for the clouds and butterflies). I chose several sentiments from Taylored Expressions Be Joyful stamp set and after I applied the scalloped piece to an A2 card base the project was complete.

#1 – Neenah Solar White 80 lb * #2 – Ken Oliver Watercolor Paper with wet paintbrush on wings and clouds * #3 – Ken Oliver Watercolor Paper with water spritz

Each card has its own feature to give it a unique appearance but the basic card was very quick and easy. Two of the cards were created on watercolor paper. I enhanced the butterflies on one of them by wetting a paintbrush and stroking across some areas of each butterfly’s wings. I misted water on the second watercolor card but it didn’t make a lot of difference (in my opinion). However, I did stamp and cut a butterfly and add it to the sentiment and I thought that added a nice touch.

I love this stamp set and noticed that My Favorite Things has just released another set of More Brilliant Butterflies that would be good to add to these or could be used as a stand-alone set if you don’t already have butterfly stamps.

Supplies:

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Did you know that a butterfly lives only one week to one month? Doesn’t it make you wonder how they know where to migrate to…or even to migrate at all? I have read that the last “crop” of butterflies each season can live eight to nine months because they aren’t using all of their energy to mate. They also lose the ability to fly when they become cold. I guess that means it’s possible some of them are still around when the weather starts to warm again and they can lead the pack to their summer homes. I know there’s a lot more science that goes into it but it is fascinating that butterflies and birds seem to always show up at the same places year after year. And, when I see a butterfly during the spring and summer months it brings a smile to my face. Thanks for stopping by today. Next week I will have one more Easter project to share with you. Please come back to see what I have to offer.