Swallowtail card

I am back in the ‘evaluate old stash’ mode … also trying not to make every card a stitched one which is hard as I really am enjoying that at the moment! I grabbed the swallowtail stamp off the shelf in one of these … do I really need this in my stash? … moments … and had a little play!

It was only a little play but it was one of my favourite ways of using this stamp … to take a background, emboss it and then add ink to the actual butterfly to make it look a little different from the background.

The panel I used for this was one I had mopped up some ink off the desk using some watercolour cardstock. This meant it was a bumpy surface so not the easiest to stamp on … definitely recommend a stamp positioner to do it so you can stamp multiple times to get good coverage.

I used a dark purple/red to emboss and then added some pink ink with a water brush to the actual butterfly to darken it.

I then edged the panel with the same colour ink to give it a frame.

Next I did the sentiment which I embossed in a similar colour and then edged again and then added it to the card with the vellum shimmer die cut ring (I’ve had this on the desk for sometime so good to get it used!

I then found a panel of merry Merlot which I thought worked well with the colours. I used some oxide inks to stamp sending love randomly all over and used blackberry bliss to ink the edges. This all gives it quite a subtle effect but gives some additional interest.

Stuck the front panel to a 5×7 card blank and called it done.

I do still love this large stamp so not sure I can part with it just yet … so back on the shelf it will go!

Entering this into the Always Anything Goes challenge at Creative Fingers

Happy crafting!

Catherine