It’s going to be another one of those hot and humid days. With a heat warning in place I’ve just closed up all the windows and drawn the curtains. That should keep the house relatively cool as the temperature begins to climb. Later, once it starts to cool again and the onshore breeze picks up, I’ll open up the house again. In the meantime I shall be mostly crafting. Today’s project was inspired by the pretty butterflies I saw while mowing a path through our flower meadow at the weekend.

PATTERNED PAPERS

I have to say that the idea for this project all started when I found this summery pattern in the Rings of Love Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. This paper is just one of the free items available with a minimum purchase during the Sale-A-Bration promotion.

With the paper chosen I decided it would make a great background for a gift tag. So I cut it out using the largest of the flat-topped dies in the Tailor Made Tags Dies set. Then, using the same die I cut a piece of Basic White Card. Finally I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the two die-cut pieces together.

Now I wanted to add a butterfly to the tag and the only one I could remember having was in the Meadow Dies. However there is no coordinating image and so I had to think of a way to add colour to the shape. Today my solution was to use the small butterfly die to cut out a scrap of Pretty Prints DSP. In fact I cut two and glued them together to make my butterfly a little sturdier.

While I loved the colour and pattern the DSP gave to the wings I did think the body was lost. So I simply picked up a Basic Black Stampin’ Write maker and coloured it in using the brush tip. With that I folded up the wings before using liquid glue to attach the butterfly’s body to the tag.

QUIET MEADOW

Having already used the Meadow Dies I automatically reached for the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set in search of a sentiment. I chose the small and simple “Love” sentiment, but instead of an ink pad used the brush tip of the Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker to add ink to the stamp surface. Then I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of Basic White Card.

Going back to the Meadow Dies I cut out the sentiment using the tiny tag die with the idea of tying it onto the main tag. However I felt that it just looked lost. So instead I decided to hide the hole at the end with another die-cut piece.

After returning to the Meadow Dies once again I decided that the large ‘daisy’ shape was exactly what I needed. I found a scrap of Basic White Card and cut out the daisy, before adding a light layer of Crushed Curry ink over the surface using a Blending Brush. All I needed now was to die cut the oval piece for the centre. First though I put some more Crushed Curry ink on the Blending Brush and then tapped it firmly onto the scrap of Basic White Card. This gave it a more mottled look, and after die-cutting the oval shape glued it onto the flower.

With that done I glued the sentiment piece to the back of the flower so the word “love” was visible between two petals. Then I put Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals on the back and fixed it to the tag base. After securing the stalk to the bottom of the tag base with a dot of liquid glue, I used Paper Snips to trim off the excess, level with the bottom of the tag.

Finally I cut some white twine from the Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack and tied it to the tag. My summer meadow inspired project was complete.

I used the Calypso Coral-coloured paper from the Pretty Prints DSP pack for my butterfly today, but there were three other options. For more information and another project using the Pretty Prints DSP see my earlier blog post Pretty prints, pretty colours.

PRODUCT LIST

SALE-A-BRATION – The Rings of Love 12″ x 12″ DSP is only available to customers until August 31st (while stocks last). However, like all products in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure these are not available to buy, but can be earned for free simply by placing a qualifying order. To get this paper simply order $60 of regular Stampin’ Up! products (before shipping and taxes), then select it as your free choice when prompted during the checkout process.

The Rings of Love DSP coordinates with the Ringed With Nature Stamp Set and Tree Rings Hybrid Embossing Folder in the current Mini Catalogue. If you want the stamp set and hybrid folder you can save 10% if you order them as the Ringed With Nature Bundle.