Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Butterflies for two lovely ladies.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been busy making cards that I couldn't yet show on my blog. Well both my sister and lovely daughter-in-law had birthdays last week, so here are the cards I made for them.

Firstly my sister Jean, who many of you have met in blogland already. We are as different as chalk and cheese, but we get on so well now. We are both crafters, and we both love stamping, distressing, die-cutting and colouring, but our styles are very different. Whereas I am a tad slap-dash, a bit heavy-handed with inks and paints, and I have no set style that is 'me', Jean is a careful worker who produces beautiful pastel creations, often with the dreaded white space that I just can't handle, and I recognise her work because she does have her own style. (You can see some of her lovely work on her blog here. I'm sure she'd like you to visit). All this makes producing a card for her quite difficult. But one thing I dabble in that she doesn't do, is parchment craft, so I thought that's what I'd use for her card. This was our project at my monthly class in June. It was our introduction to colouring on parchment. Our class runs from 10.30 in the morning until 4.00 but even so, we all went home with our card unfinished. However I decided to use mine, so I layered up the main panels, but that left me with a fairly empty space on the left hand side that I didn't like. So I traced and coloured another butterfly on to  a small off-cut of parchment, cut it out, and glued it to the empty panel. The panel was already attached to the card so it was too late to emboss a sentiment as this has to be done from the reverse side, so I coloured a peel-off with a purple permanent marker and used that. I have a long way to go with this technique but I knew Jean would accept my shortcomings.



































My daughter-in-law has two great loves, butterflies and the colour purple. When Chocolate Baroque released their plate of stamps - Punky Romance - I knew this was the perfect image for her. My son is a vicar, and Jo manages to fulfil the demanding role of being a vicar's wife, alongside being a mum of three lovely children and a teaching assistant, and still maintains her rather quirky, individual style. I recently bought some pan pastels so I decided to try them out to make the background, using a tint and shade in purple. They did blend easily but I could do with some card with a bit more 'tooth' as I found that when I burnished it with a paper towel, I took a lot of the colour off again. I cut the background to fit a purple square base card, and used my Memento Paris Dusk pad to stamp the image in the corner. I added some more pastels to the spare card to darken it and re-stamped the cogs, large butterfly and flowers, cut them out, and used silicon glue to add them to the main image. I added a small gem to the centre of each flower and some purple stickles sparkle to the butterfly wings. Next I printed out the quote by Dr Seuss that fits Jo so well, cut it out with my Silhouette machine, and glued it to the right hand side of the card. Finally I added a little green butterfly made with a lovely cut and emboss folder recently purchased from Stampin'up.

The jury is still out on the Pan pastels. I liked them for the background, but can't see me doing much detailed work with them. But I haven't really given them a fair trial yet.

I am entering the second card in the following challenges;
Crafty Catz Challenge 142: Monochromatic.
Inspire me Fridays: Anything goes.

14 comments:

Chris said...

" beautiful cards , love the butterflies.

Jean said...

My card is really pretty, thank you again, and for the blog plug.
I like the other card too, you've given that stamp a completely different treatment, I think it's great. Jean x

Unknown said...

..A fabulous card and fits in Brilliantly with our challenge thanks for joining us at CRAFT CATZ..sassyx

Di said...

Wow Kate, both cards are fabulous! Interesting to read your take on Pan Pastels as I'm still dithering whether to try them or not. But, that background is beautiful I must say, love the butterflies of course and am amazed at the detailed parchment work, gorgeous!

Di xx

Purple mad Alison said...

Brilliant card, I too love purple and butterflies, so that's right up my street!
The parchment work is amazing, you've got more patience than I have!
Thanks for joining us over on Fat Pages With Attitude.
Hugs Alison x x

kiwimeskreations said...

Hi Kate, these are both beautiful, but I must say as a lover of purple the second card really impresses! Love the combination of steampunk and flowers :-)
Blessings
Maxine

Shoshi said...

O Wow Kate, those are awesome!!! The parchment one especially, is exquisite - you have a REAL gift for this art form! I feel so privileged to own a real piece of your parchment work on my beautiful little ATC!

Thank you so much for your lovey comment about the flowers. Someone on the Black Cat cutter forum has just suggested I try making some flowers with the faux porcelain effect! That would be fun, too. So much to try!

Shoshi

Saskia said...

Wow, Kate, I love that purple card! Wonderful quote also.

Haven't tried pan pastels myself yet, they are pretty expensive and I don't really see much use for them.

Shoshi said...

Thanks for your lovely comment, Kate - yes, definitely one for the wish list! I'm amazed at how utterly gorgeous the Dylusions inks are, and after eyeing them enviously for months, I'm so glad I finally took the plunge. I'm loving the results!

Shoshi

Jopez said...

The card is brilliant and absolutely perfect for me, thank you! x x

I like Jean's too!

Sarn said...

WOW . . . these are two very beautiful cards Kate.

I think you're supposed to "fix" the Pan Pastels with cheap hairspray once you've done the blending and you're happy with the effect. Hope this helps.

LOVE that Dr Seuss sentiment xxx

Lindsay Craftymonster81 said...

This are both absolutely stunning cards, I love the pretty butterflies and the soft colours on the first one and the butterflies and cogs against the rich colours on the second one look wonderful, thank you for joining in with the fat pages with attitude challenge
Lindsay xx

Curly said...

Thank you so very much for Joining us at Crafty Catz Challenge, this is one very beautiful creation

Have a lovely day,
Good Luck with the challenge,
Hugs Bridget Crafty Catz DT :0) x

craftimamma said...

I think these are both fab Kate and by the sounds of it each one was perfect for the recipient. The butterflies on Jean's card are really lovely and such pretty colours.

I haven't had chance to use my Punky Romance stamps still but love what you've done here. I really like using Pan Pastels as an alternative to blending inks for a background but it is best to set them and cheap hairspray is fine for a card. If it were something you wanted to keep (say a scrapbook page) you can get a special fixative which is a lot more expensive but I've found the hairspray fine on cards.

Hugs
Lesley Xx