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

Need a quickie card? RTU's to the rescue

(Please click on any photo to see a larger image.)

Okay, so my son tells me he is attending a two year old's birthday party but he didn't have time to buy a card or a gift. The two year old's father is a friend of his and was really pushing for a gift of some sort (just a little presumptuous on his part but I digress). I, who have absolutely NOTHING to do, decided I would make a quickie card. What? Me? A quickie card? Not a chance. I'm the one who spends fifteen minutes deliberating the placement of a decorative paper fastener. There was no way I was going to design a quickie card from scratch so I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances...I went straight to my RTU stash.

RTU stands for Ready To Use. It is my self-defined repository of all those odds and ends left over from other projects I had worked on, creative experiments I had tinkered with...just about anything that I couldn't bear to part with because I thought it would come in handy for a card someday. Sure enough, when I scrounged around in the depths of my creative detritus I found plenty of stuff with which to make a card sure to tickle any two year old girl's heart. In my card drawer I found the dark pink base card  with the pretty punched edge. My paper stash yielded the embossed Happy Birthday layer in pink and orange. The rosette was literally sitting on my table top for weeks, the remains of my first attempts at making rosettes. Fortunately it, too, had a punched edge. The large butterfly and the fern leaf were all leftovers from experimenting with my eCraft electronic cutter. The smaller butterflies had been punched out of scrap paper last year and had been fluttering around in my drawer ever since just waiting for me to notice them. Absolutely everything you see in the photo was ready and waiting for me to bring them all together. The inside of the card, which I neglected to photograph, had the sentiment "Make a Wish" stamped on a tag that also came from my RTU stash. This card only took me about half an hour and most of that time was spent in pulling together all the various pieces of this artistic puzzle and adding a little bling on the large butterfly. (Those rhinestones are applied by hand one by one.)

So I have learned that a severe shortage of time and limited supplies with which to work can spark the most creative ideas. I guess I'll have to dive into my craft drawers more often. Who knows what I might come up with?

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
Design team member for About Art Accents

The Joys of Card Swapping and RTU's

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)


When I was first introduced to the world of online craft groups, I was interested in the practice of swap challenges. This is when participants create an item according to certain guidelines such as specified color(s), theme, layout, technique, etc. It was an opportunity for us crafters to try something new, share it with others of our own ilk and get some feedback on our work. The group I was member of for nearly two years recently shut down and its moderator suggested we join Paper Craft Planet if we were interested in continuing to swap, a suggestion which I took. In the past two weeks I have participated in two challenges and the results are pictured here. These are all examples of challenges where you have to create a card based on a specified layout or "sketch". The first two cards were created for the same challenge. You can see how the placement of the elements in both cards is the same but the colors and themes are totally different. The third card is for a different sketch challenge that required that the central element be a heart in addition to using the specified layout.

This last card is an excellent example of how you can use little things you may have laying around in your craft stash to create a beautiful card. I like to experiment with different techniques and new materials in order to get a feel for them. Some of my efforts end up in the trash but some of them I like so much that I can't bear to toss them even though they were meant only for practice. I call those pieces RTU which means Ready-To-Use. That is the case with the inked and embossed chipboard heart on this card. It was a successful experiment that was lying around in my stash and perfectly fit in with the requirements of this particular sketch challenge. The polka dot ribbon came from last year's box of Valentine's chocolates and the velveteen stripes were created with redline tape and Fun Flock over striped wallpaper.

Are you a crafter? Do you have a stash of RTU's waiting to be "discovered", or perhaps you have already created works of beauty using little bits of this and that? If you have a photo gallery with pictures of your work, please share them with me through your commnents. I'd love to see them. Thanks.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva