Blossom and Butterflies Viva La Verve

The month of July seemed so long with 5 weeks, yet it went by so fast. Now I'm catching up on my favorite sketch challenge (Viva La Verve with a {twist} before this months deadline for the Champions thread. I think I better get the last one done tonight!




My Viva La Verve card for week 4 was a fun card. I played with the "smoosh" technique. I've done it before on my July MojoMonday Contest week Challenge, but I didn't know it had an official name. It's simply brayering ink down on an embossing folder before using it. This is the video that.






I think my top B plate is warped a bit too much and the ink didn't transfer to the paper, so I tried misting the paper with water and it worked a little bit better. I could hide the parts that didn't transfer with the rest of the challenge sketch. Old pink cardstock stash and Pink Passion ink for the embossed paper. I actually used the first try paper as the horizontal element as it was lighter on one end than the other. I like that mistake. I used the Stampin' Up scallop edge punch on both sides of a strip of paper and then cut it to the length needed.



I felt it was time to go bright and cheery with a card. The Blossoms and Butterflies paper pak from Die Cut with a View is so cute and bright. Some of the paper had blinged with foil embossing so that was the inspiration for the stitching and glitter on this card. What worked? Paper piercing and hand stitching. What didn't work? filling in the stitches as I went along made the back cording too thick so I pulled that all out and did a straight stitch around twice by hand. Did that make sense? What worked? Glitter on a stamped flower from Verve's Petals and Stems. What didn't work? Glitter on the brown patterned paper. It just doesn't show up that well.


The flower bling is a stamped flower from Verve's Petals and Stems set. I fussed with where to put it and what marker colors to use. I decided to just put some matching glitter on it. What worked? The colors and glittery focal point to the card. What didn't work? I put down glue first, all over the flower, then sprinkled the pink glitter through a circle punched paper that hovered over the flower. This method didn't make for a precise circle in the center. Next time I'll do the center glue first and glitter then dry before adding the glue and glitter for the petals.

UPDATE: I forgot to chat about the butterfly and library pocket. I wanted to make a pocket to put a card on it. I already knew the card would have a butterfly on it when I chose the pattern paper. To make the butterfly match I used Prismacolor markers Light Cerulean Blue (PM 48) and True Blue (PM 39). The pocket was going to use a couple of new techiques I came across on Youtube, but in the practice of them I didn't like the rough look I ended up with so I just left it blank. I used the Library pocket template from Mirkwood Designs and resized it in Microsoft Powerpoint three different sized to get the right one on the first print. What worked? The transparent pocket allowed me to stamp a sentiment on the card. What didn't work? Not sure? I like how this portion of the card went together. I might have wanted to try and emboss the vellum just for more texture, but that's for the next Viva La Verve sketch for a {twist}. ;)