Happy Birthday Butterfly

I created this card for My Favorite Things' Camp Create Bonus challenge, "Awesome Ombre." Stephanie Klauck, one of their "camp counselors," demonstrated not only ombre ink blending for a background; but also coloring images with an ombre look, which I had never thought of doing. So I did both with this card.

For the background, I used MFT's "Small Brick Wall" stencil & Dried Marigold Distress ink. I also wanted to mask a butterfly shape, so I die cut one of the "Flutter of Butterflies - Solid" from a full-sticky Post It note. After I cut a panel of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper to 4x5.5", I adhered the butterfly mask in place, and taped the stencil down over that. I blended the ink up from the bottom, letting it fade out to white at the top. I have done this before with different shades of ink, but never with just one color. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Before I removed my butterfly mask, I adhered the negative piece from when I die cut it around the positive mask. I removed the positive piece, and inked up the butterfly area with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, again getting an ombre look. I felt like I didn't get a deep enough color on the bottom, so I added in a bit of Broken China ink. When I had the color like I wanted, I removed the negative mask.

For the overlay part of the butterfly, I die cut the coordinating "Flutter of Butterflies - Lace" from more bristol paper. I used a green Tombow marker, and applied the color to the bottom. Then I blended it out towards the top with a water brush. I die cut a body from black cardstock, and glued that to the overlay, then glued that in place over the stenciled butterfly on my background. Finally, I added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the overlay & body.

I die cut the greeting using one of the "Happy Trio" dies from My Favorite Things (discontinued) & their "Little Lowercase Letters" to spell "birthday." I applied Stick It adhesive to the back of my black cardstock before die cutting. Then I used my tweezers to apply the word/letters to my background. When I had them positioned correctly, I used my teflon bone folder to burnish them in place.

To finish my card, I cut two 1/8" strips of black cardstock, and glued them along the sides of a white A2 card base. Then I adhered my main panel, added some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops, and this card was done!