Beautiful Day Butterfly - Fun Fold Easel Card

This birthday card is for a young great-niece - I thought she'd like a colourful butterfly.

An Easel Fold card featuring the butterfly image from the Beautiful Day stamp set

I stamped the butterfly image onto Window Sheet (acetate) with Stazon ink and then used some Stampin' Blends alcohol markers to colour it in .... on the back.  As it turned out, I decided it needed a piece of white cardstock behind the image to make it pop more and to obscure the easel fold.

To make the easel fold - I cut my base card to 11" x 5 1/2" and scored at 2 3/4" and 5 1/2".

A side view of the easel fold

I used the method shown at the bottom of this post to "resize" the Stitched Rectangle with the greeting.  The butterflies were cut with the Butterfly Beauty dies from Lovely Lipstick cardstock and adhered to So Saffron cardstock before trimming around the butterflies.  I find this quicker and easier than paper piecing when I'm time-poor.

I coloured Basic Rhinestone Jewels with the alcohol markers so that they would match.

I wanted to ensure that I cut identical frames for the back and front of the piece and so I used some old washi tape to keep them in the correct position, allowing for multiple identical frames to be cut.

I use my cutting mat to help align the dies for my frame

I then use washi tape to keep the frame in the correct position for cutting multiple identical frames

The closed easel card

I also made a variant of this card for a sympathy card.  This butterfly is stamped onto vellum but I still added the piece of white behind it to make it pop more.

Looking back at these photos has been really interesting.  Believe it or not, both cards were made with the same Bermuda Bay cardstock but I photographed one with my phone and the other with my Canon camera - they look quite different.  I do apologise for that!

Beautiful Day butterfly stamped onto vellum and coloured with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers

The view of the closed card

To make the die cut narrower, I positioned the die as required and then placed the top cutting plate only over the area to be cut - as shown in the image below. TIP:  I "wiggle" the die gently until I can feel the blade of the die fitting into the die cut to match what has already been cut.

This is how I resized / reshaped the die cut.

Thank you for visiting.

'Til next time!

Stephanie

Product List - All products are available for purchase from my online store

Beautiful Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$37.00

Window Sheets

$8.75

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

$17.50

Lovely Lipstick Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

$7.75

Bermuda Bay Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

$7.75

Mango Melody Dark Stampin' Blends

$7.75

Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay

$15.25

Lovely Lipstick A4 Cardstock

$15.25

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

$17.00

So Saffron A4 Card Stock

$15.25

Stitched Rectangle Dies

$61.00

Butterfly Beauty Dies

$68.00

Merry Christmas Dies

$49.00

Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$17.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

$8.75

Foam Adhesive Strips

$14.00

Stampin' Dreams Blog Hop - Birthday

Welcome to the monthly Stampin' Dreams Blog Hop.  You are currently visiting Stephanie Fischer (The Crafty Thinker) from Australia.

Our theme this month is to provide "Birthday" inspiration - which really helped me focus on making this 40th birthday card for my niece!  The inspiration for the floating frame part of the card came from a card I saw that was made by Terri Gaines.

A very bright & cheerful 40th birthday card for a very bright & cheerful person!

My card has different dimensions:  The Basic Black base card is cut to 9" x 5.5" and scored on the long side at 4.5" and 7

Butterfly Gala, Layering Ovals dies and Tufted embossing folder provide the main elements in this easel card

I cut the oval from the centre of the Lovely Lipstick foil sheet and then embossed with the Tufted embossing folder.  I also cut the same oval shape from the centre of the front of the card. 

The window sheet is glued between the black and white frames.  TIP:  I find that I get the best result when gluing window sheet by using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

The butterflies inside the card are stamped individually (it's a double stamp) by applying the ink to one butterfly at a time on the stamp using a Basic Gray Marker Pen.   When adding the Melon Mambo colour with the two step stamping technique, I stamped off first to reduce the ink saturation.  To achieve the slightly darker bottom wings on the large butterfly I repeated the process.

The easel card looks like this when it's closed

To cut the numbers, I had to resort to using a retired die set.  

The punched out butterflies were left over from a previous card.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you enjoyed this card.  You are currently visiting Stephanie Fischer - please see the list below and click on the next person on the list to hop through all of the people to see all of our projects.  You don't want to miss any!

'Til next time!

Stephanie

Product List - All supplies (except the number dies) are available for purchase in my online store

Butterfly Gala Photopolymer Bundle

$61.00

Tufted Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$16.00

Layering Ovals Framelits Dies

$58.00

Bunch Of Banners Framelits Dies

$45.00

Butterfly Beauty Thinlits Dies

$68.00

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Photopolymer Stamp Set

$37.00

Share What You Love Artisan Pearls

$10.50

Faceted Dots

$10.50

Ink it! Stamp it! Design Team Blog Hop : Technique - Easel Card

Welcome to the Ink It! Stamp It! Design Team Blog Hop - we hop every month so be sure to pop back and visit us again!  Today our theme is Technique and I've made an easel card using the gorgeous new Graceful Glass Vellum that will be available in the new Annual Catalogue from 1 June.

You are currently at my page - Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker.  At the end of my post there is a full line of team members, please click on the name after mine in the list to continue the hop.

A stained glass window achieved with an easel card and the Graceful Glass Vellum

I used Stampin' Blends alcohol markers to add some colour to the front of the printed vellum and them made some frames from Poppy Parade cardstock.  Poppy Parade is a returning colour in the new Annual Catalogue.  Real Red would work really well too.

The Poppy Parade red and Graceful Glass vellum make a striking contrast against the neutral easel card

I made the base easel from a 12" square piece of Basic Black card and have included the dimensions below.

When the easel card is propped open, the light shines through the "stained glass window"

I added layers of Poppy Parade and Sahara Sand cardstock to the easel and then added my framed pieces of vellum.  From the photos you'll see that I adhered both to the lower section of the front of the card so that the top frame stands proud when the easel is propped into position.

The inside of the easel card is quite clean and simple

Inside the card I adhered a decorative strip with Stampin' Dimensionals and above that I adhered a piece of Whisper White cardstock for writing a greeting.   I didn't want the white to show when the card was propped open on it's easel.

I cut the piece of vellum larger than the Whisper White strip underneath it, folded it over the white strip and taped it at the back so that no adhesive would show through the vellum.  I then adhered that strip to a slightly larger piece of Poppy Parade and added a couple of Faceted Dots that will also be available from 1 June.

The finished size of this easel card is 7" x 6"

I stamped the greeting from the matching Painted Glass stamp set onto a piece of Sahara Sand and layered it onto a piece of Basic Black card.

DIMENSIONS:
Easel card:  Cut to 12" x 7".  Score and fold long side at 6" and 9"  

Layers:  Cut 2 each  Red 2 3/4" x 6 3/4"
                                  Sahara Sand  2 1/2' x 61/2"

Vellum: Top piece           3" x 6"
             Lower piece       1 3/4" x 6"

Frames: (Cut out the middles of the pieces, leaving 1/4" frames)
Top Frame (red)              3 1/4" x 6 1/8"     - Adhere only the lower edge to the card
Lower Frame (red)          1 7/8" x 6 1/8"     - Adhere all edges to the card
              
I hope you've enjoyed this this technique and card and I welcome your comments. 

Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope you'll join us again next month for projects featuring our Favourite Retiring Bundle! I'm Stephanie Fischer and to keep hopping around see the list below to see who is up next with another great technique.

Thanks for visiting
'Til next time
Stephanie

Current Product List - all available in my online store

Basic Black 12" X 12" Card Stock

$12.25

Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock

$14.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

$6.00

Stampin' Trimmer

$50.00

Ink it! Stamp it! Design Team Blog Hop: Sale-A-Bration/Occasions 2018

Welcome to the Ink it! Stamp it! Design Team Blog Hop - we hop every month so be sure to pop back and visit us again!  Today our theme is Sale-A-Bration and the Occasions Catalogue - such an exciting time in the Stampin' Up calendar!

You are currently at my page - Stephanie Fischer, The Crafty Thinker.  At the end of my post there is a full line up of team members, please click on the name after mine in the list to continue the hop.

As soon as I saw it, I completely fell in love with the Heartfelt Blooms stamp set and confess that I bumped up my purchases a bit so that I could get my hands on it!  It's one of the AMAZING products exclusive to the new Sale-A-Bration Catalogue that are free with qualifying orders.

Easel card with sneak peek of the Heartfelt Blooms stamp set with Color Theory paper

Most of the products in the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue are (as usual) free with a purchase of $90, however, this year there are also a few that require a spend of $180.

Welcome to the Ink it! Stamp it! Design Team Blog Hop!  We hop every month so be sure to pop back and visit us again!

The closed easel card with Heartfelt Blooms stamp and Color Theory paper

This Heartfelt Blooms stamp set can be obtained free with a product purchase of $90.

Easel card with Heartfelt Blooms stamp set and Fresh Florals paper

I made easel cards because I happened to be demonstrating that fun fold in class and I've teamed that glorious image with a variety of Designer Series Papers from the current Annual Catalogue.

The inside of the easel card - copper sequins add a little bling

The little heart-shaped embellishments are discarded remnants from using the Starlight dies in another card!
Petal Garden Designer Series Paper

I used a combination of Lemon Lime Twist and Garden Green inks
Fresh Floral paper and Tranquil Tide cardstock

The simplicity of this ombre Color Theory paper really sets off the detailed beauty of  the Heartfelt Blooms

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and I welcome your comments.

Thank you so much for joining us today.  We hope you'll join us again next month for our Technique based projects!  I'm Stephanie Fischer and to keep hopping around, see the list below to see who is up next with another great sneak peek!

Thanks for visiting
'Til next time!
Stephanie