Creative Medium Butterflies

I have a thing for butterflies. I have complete admiration for a creature that goes through an extreme metamorphosis to become something delicate and beautiful. For me, butterflies are the epitome of Mother Nature's magic. My inspiration for this card came from an afternoon spent at the butterfly exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I no sooner walked into the exhibit when a butterfly fluttered near only to land on my hand. It stayed there for the next 45 minutes while I walked around admiring the foliage and the various species of butterflies flitting around. Definitely magical.

I began this project with a 4 x 5.25 piece of purple cardstock. Using a stencil and a sponge dipped in silver Delicata ink, I created the square maze for the background.

Stencils are so easy to use and offer up so many possibilities in the crafting world.

I love the shimmer that the silver Delicata ink lends to the background. It's a rich, thick ink that really stands out.

Next, I used a different stencil and Imagine Crafts Creative Medium in iridescent purple. I used painters tape to mask off parts of the stencil to avoid accidentally stenciling where I didn't want to.

Creative Medium is wonderful stuff! It's and acrylic medium, about the consistency of peanut butter, that spreads on easily with a palette knife.

Once done, I carefully lifted off the stencil and there were three iridescent butterflies!

I let the butterflies dry and then repeated the stenciling process using the stencil, my palette knife, and the Creative Medium. You can see how the butterflies have begun to dry and really show that iridescent sheen, while some of the wet circles still look a little more like paste.

I wanted to give the piece movement, so I made another butterfly to give the piece some air. I began with an old scrap of sheet music which I spread very lightly with the Creative Medium to carry that same iridescent shimmer.

When it was dry, I stamped it with a butterfly using StazOn Gothic Purple ink. 

Then I cut out the butterfly and attached it to my background piece.

All that was left to do was to mount the piece on a card backing and send it flitting on its way to brighten someone's day.

This card took a couple of hours to complete, but only because of the drying time needed. Actual time spent making it was about 20 minutes. This is something that a beginner could easily do!

Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko Products Used

• Creative Medium - Iridescent Purple
• Delicata Ink Pad - Silver
• StazOn Ink Pad - Gothic Purple
• Palette Knife

Other Products Used

• Stencils by The Crafter's Workshop
• Sponge
• Purple cardstock
• Sheet music scrap
• Beacon 3-in-1 Glue
• Butterfly rubber stamp by Finnabair