Winged Bling

Butterfly Bling - Variations on a theme

In my continuing quest to work my creative mojo, (see last post here), as well as to use up some of my expansive stash of supplies, I have decided to use the some of my RTU's (go here or here or here to see previous posts explaining this). In this case it began with a piece of sprayed watercolor background that I had left over from a previous project. To that I added some ribbon, a little rubber stamping and some bling to make it shine and I loved the result. Not content with just one card, I decided to create four more in different colorways.

The butterfly stamp, from one of the very first stamp sets I bought when I began card making more than six years ago, was stamped with VersaMark watermarking ink on a piece of white cardstock with a satin gloss to it. I then colored the image with either shimmery chalks, PearlEx pigment paint powders or a combination of the two. The backgrounds were created by spraying Stamp Zia's liquid watercolor paints on a piece of watercolor paper, drying between colors with a craft dryer (a blow dryer works fine, too.) The base card was specifically chosen to coordinate with the watercolor background. The flourishes, stamped with Inkadinkado Gem Stone Flourishes clear acrylic stamp set (#98977), were inked in a coordinating color and studded with self adhesive rhinestones that picked up some of the colors in the background.

To see photos of the individual cards,as well as the rest of my work, go to my Photobucket album here. Thanks for reading. Comments especially welcome.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Reclaiming My Mojo

I can not believe it has been nearly six weeks since my last post and the summer is nearly gone. Time does not fly. On a slow day it careens past us at breakneck speed . At other times it moves so quickly it can not be seen by the naked eye. And yet it happens every day. That must explain why I look in the mirror and don't recognize the woman who looks like my mother and wonder what happened to the real me.

In the meantime I've been very busy with my garden, which always brings me great joy, and I've been trying to get back into a crafting groove. To that end I have been creating cards as well as some little embellishments. One of the recurring motifs of this summer has been the dragonfly. I have never seen so many dragonflies in my garden as I have seen this year. They are unsurpassed in number and size as evidenced by the photo of a huge dragonfly that visited me last month (Beautiful colors on the body, don't you think?). I love the look of dragonflies and in the past have purchased rubber stamps and embellishments of dragonflies to use in my crafting. This time I thought I would try my hand and creating my own little dragonflies embellishments. Using a paper punch, I punch out several dragonflies from acetate and colored the wings with Stazon solvent ink. I punched out more dragonflies from card stock, cut off the wings and colored details onto the bodies with gel pens. Then I glued the paper bodies onto the acetate dragonflies and bent the wings up at a slight angle. Voila! Little dragonflies that measure only one inch square.



I also created a card for an upcoming challenge card swap with Oriental Stamp Art Yahoo Group. The challenge was to create a card with only the colors black and turquoise. I love limited color challenges so I signed up and created the card you see below. I stamped the envelope with watermark ink and dusted it with blue-green pigment powder. The subtle sheen changes from blue to green as you move the image in the light.





In a departure from the standard A2 sized cards (4.25 x 5.5 inches) I usually make, I have begun using a smaller 3.5 x 5 inch format which lends itself very well to a quick and informal kind of note. It so happens I have a box of blank cards waiting for embellishment so when the mood strikes me, I just grab one or more and I can start crafting. The other two cards on this page were the result of these creative urges. In both cases I used items from my stash of supplies that been seldom used in the past so I'm starting to rediscover the treasures hiding in my drawers and closets.

My intention is to continue on this creative bent and get back to the level I had reached a few years ago. It was a fulfilling, joyful and magical time for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Really now, who wouldn't like a little more joy and magic in their lives? I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Ballo ergo sum

- Gitana, the Creative Diva