Simon Wednesday Challenge with CAS on Sunday (Butterflies)

I am very slow to get around to this post.  In fact, the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Animal Magic" will end early tomorrow morning, so I'm barely making it!  I've been in a class at Altenew Academy for the past 6 days and I've been practicing some new techniques.  I still need a lot of practice for some of them and in fact my favorite thing that came out of this class was something I had actually seen Marika (our instructor) do before. This was just the first time I had tried it.  

I combined this technique with a couple of elements so that I could participate in these two challenges.  On the Simon Challenge, they did say Butterflies to Buffaloes if you're wondering what my animal is.  The CAS on Sunday Challenge is "Butterflies". So I combined two of my favorites for this challenge, flowers and butterflies.  

For today's card, I did the same technique that I used on this card but I stamped both of the detail layers and softened them out with water rather than just the one layer of detail. So, I stamped the outline images in Versamark and heat embossed them using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Then I stamped the 2 detail layers and softened them up using a water brush. This particular card uses Lavender Moon Ink from Papertrey Ink. It actually works better with pinks than it does with purples for my purposes anyway.  But it is a color I love almost as much as my pinks.  I also used Lavender Moon Ink to do the ink blending on my background panel but since I misted it with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz it is also a bit lighter. For that, I used watercolor paper and then die cut it when dry with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die. 

For the spatter, I used Hibiscus Burst Ink with a very small amount of water and a #4 Round Brush.  All of a sudden I'm really into all kinds of "dot" accents and I can hardly wait for my Pico Embellishers to get here so I can try those out as well.  I ordered black and gold.  I think the black one would have looked great on here but I know I will create another pink card pretty soon, so I will have opportunities to try it.   

The stamped part of the greeting is from Papertrey Ink's Enclosed: Butterfly Mini Stamp Set and the "Perfect" is a die from Waffle Flower Crafts.  The blooms are from my favorite Altenew Set, Beautiful Day and I used the coordinating dies. The butterfly is from Impression Obsession.  I really love the look of this softened ink and I have another project in the works using a few different color combinations.  This bloom always makes me think of Wild Roses.  Everything was attached to an A2 Top Folding Notecard made from Lavender Moon Cardstock.

I have so enjoyed Marika's class this past week.  I feel like the small details I put into my cards may not be visible on first glance, but probably will be on the second glance. It's okay if they aren't because I enjoy the entire process and people do love to get a handmade card.  For me, that is what it's all about.

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my project.  Have a fantastic week everyone!