Mudra Craft Stamps: It's all about butterflies! + Mudra February Release

Hi everyone,

Mirella here again, and I am so happy to be sharing my next set of cards with you all. Since most of you most likely don't know me too well, I have a confession to make - I have a weakness for butterflies! I love cards with these beautiful colourful creatures, and I think that they are truly versatile - therefore, I have quite a collection of butterfly stamps and dies in my stash, and I was delighted when I got to add some Mudra ones to it.

Yes, you have guessed, today's cards will all showcase butterflies. And, truth be told, even though Mudra has a few lovely butterfly sets to choose from, I used only one of them on all 3 of my cards. I have, however, used it in different ways and on different materials. Let's have a look, shall we?

Card 1 - Stamping on acetate

1. I created the front panel by blending on some Distress Inks with my blending tool (I used Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron and Mustard Seed).

2. I lightly spritzed it with water mixed with Perfect Pearls through the Geo Pattern stencil by Mudra (you can barely see the pattern, but that was the plan!), and then I added some additional droplets of water on top, for more interest.

3. I stamped one of the butterflies on a piece of acetate with black StazOn ink and fussy-cut it.

4. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx black ink, directly on the front panel.

5. I die cut the panel with a stitched die, keeping both pieces that the die created, and then turned the thin frame 180 degrees.

6. I assembled all the elements on a card base and added some Ranger Enamel Accents in matching colours.

Card 2 - Stamping on vellum

1. I started with heat embossing the butterfly with gold embossing powder onto a piece of vellum. I then fussy cut the butterfly, and coloured it on the back with Copic markers - I chose pink, purple and yellow for the colouring (TIP: Make sure you choose strong colours for this, as they will be toned down by the vellum, and bear in mind that the colours will also be changed by the colour of your background).

2. I cut out the smaller stitched panel from white cardstock and saturated it with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, by pressing the ink pad directly on the paper.

3. I placed the Geo Pattern stencil on top of my panel, and created a pattern on it by dabbing it carefully with a wet piece of kitchen towel (the water was mixed with Perfect Pearls) - you can see the lovely result in the close up picture.

4. I stamped the sentiment on a strip of vellum and wrapped it around the smaller panel.

5. I die cut a scalloped frame out of some golden glitter paper and assembled all of the pieces together on a top folding cream card base.

Card 3 - Spinner

1. I created the spinning element by stamping and fussy cutting 2 butterflies. I stamped them with Versafine Onyx black ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder (the heat embossing helped with keeping the black nice & dark even after the colouring of the image, and it added a nice shine & sturdiness to the image, too!). I then blended on two Distress Inks - Wilted Violet and Mustard Seed. Finally, I adhered the two butterflies together, back to back, using strong liquid adhesive, and making sure that I sandwiched a piece of thin string between them. Note: The butterflies are not 100% symmetrical, so I coloured the back of the cut out shapes with a black marker - that way, even if a bit of the butterfly on the back sticks out, it's not visible on the front, as there's no white paper peeking through.

2. I die cut a circle in the card base, and a matching one in a sheet of complimentary patterned paper.

3. I sandwiched the ends of the string between the patterned paper and the card base.

4. On the inside of the card, I repeatedly stamped the word Celebrate with Versamark Ink - this created a nice tone on tone watermark.

5. As you can see in the first photo, I added the word "today" on the inside of the card, but in a place where it is not visible when the card is closed - once the recipient opens the card, they'll be able to see the full sentiment which is "Celebrate today".

6. I created a white panel for the message on the back of the card base.

Stamps and stencils used: