Wedding Butterflies (not mine!) - Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge #39

I had so much fun designing this card, I just let my mind flow. I only used a very loose interpretation of the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge #39; primarily the colors, the circular and square shapes.

I love black, white and gold, I love shiny, I love metallic, and I love glitter. One of the challenges I face is limited supplies, so I really have to stretch myself to create what I need. Not that it's difficult, just more time consuming. So I used a gold glitter embossing powder to create some of the gold paper, and Ranger sticky powder to create the shimmery white and the other gold paper I used. I have to mention a caveat though, that since I started cardmaking last November, I've been very blessed to join a community of wonderful people, and in particular two very kind ladies both whom I met through SplitCoastStampers: Jan, and Krista. Both of them, completely of their own volition, saw my posts and comments and realized that I was just starting out with very little. They both (unbeknownst to each other, this wasn't a collaboration, or a board challenge, or anything like that) put together very large packages of stamping goodies for me. I can never thank them enough, and I look forward to the day that I am in a position to Pay It Forward. And that's not to mention the other kind people who have befriended me, offered moral support, constructive comments, praise, and all other forms of friendship.

So, on to this week's challenge. I'm down to my chinny chin chin hair with this one, the deadline is in less than 6 hours, and my pictures still aren't taken. I gave up, and had to solicit my husband's help. He's better at the photography thing than me, but it's also the middle of the night so there is no natural light to use. And let me tell you, for all that I love working with metallic and glitter, it is a son of a gun to photograph! Any suggestions or pointers, or links to tutorials would be very appreciated!!!

I knew I wanted to try out the Paper Smooches 'congratulations' die that Krista gifted me. I love script sentiment dies!! This is my only one, and I didn't know how I was going to use it until I was at the dentist last week, and the office administrator who I love to bits and pieces set my next appointment. She said she would make sure whoever is working at the time sends me an email reminder, as she might not be back from her honeymoon to Hawaii yet. This triggered thoughts of a wedding card, and wouldn't that be perfect for white, black and gold with a congratulations sentiment? Yes!

I somehow cut a square card, out of 110 lb Neenah cardstock. I don't think I intended to cut a square. I'm numerically challenged, and when it comes to measurements things don't always turn out the way I planned. I wanted to go with a big black circle in the middle, and I had just the perfect black shimmery cardstock to use. For Christmas, I treated myself to some a Lifestyle Crafts circle die set. I still desperately want squares and rectangles, not to mention all the lovely ones with faux stitching and piercing, etc. Anyhow, one thing at a time!

I die cut 'congratulations' into the circle so that I could use the negative space. I made some gold glitter paper and glued it behind the circle. I then proceeded to pop in all the centers of the letters (the 'o's, the 'a's, ect) so that the word was complete. Oh joy, that was fun. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!

Then I started working on the butterflies. I used another die Krista sent me, a SU! Sizzix Embosslit of five different little butterflies. I thought that a more bold gold than the one I used for the sentiment might be good, so I heat embossed some cardstock with a glitter gold embossing powder by Stampendous that I had. I had to give it two coats because it looked really watered down to me. Then, I made a white shimmery paper and cut out some more butterflies. I positioned everything on the card, and it just fell flat. I knew the stark white cardstock background wasn't going to cut it. So I put everything on hold till I could get to Michaels and find something suitable.

I don't have any foam tape, and I didn't want to use a million foam dots under the circle, so I used an idea I saw in a Jennifer McGuire video: I used some fun foam (which funnily enough I do have, don't ask!) I didn't want the fun foam to be visible from the sides, so I die cut a slightly smaller circle out of it. Glued the fun foam to the black circle, then attached it to the new white cardstock which I had cut out to fit on top of the Neenah cardstock.

Last but not least, I started positioning the butterflies on the circle with glue dots. I decided the corners looked empty, so I made some more gold glitter paper out of the same glitter I used for the sentiment. I thought they should be a bit lighter than the bigger ones. Got those cut out, finished gluing everything together, and voila. All I had to do was enlist hubby while I started writing my blog post. I'm a little verbose, in case you hadn't noticed. ;)

p.s. See the itty bitty butterfly above the 's'? Yeah that's because I spilled some glue in that spot and it left a matte smudge. Thank goodness for itty bitty butterflies :D
p.p.s. No supplies list today, I might come back and edit later, but I'm tired and haven't slept yet. Yes it's 7:30 am on the west-coast. Hubby works a night shift, and since I'm not working right now I tend to follow his schedule. For the record, I only put a supplies list because I'm a very visual person, and I love visiting blogs where I can see what they used at a glance.