Claritystamp Challenge 39

Hi Folks! Ready for another challenge from Claritystamp?  

Yes it's the 1st May and the new theme is ANYTHING GOES

(as long as it's Clarity)

This Design is made up of three stages to get the finished piece.

The first stage was made using the Groovi Parchment Starter Kit and Square Nested Plate to make my rectangular Frame. Once I had made the frame I then added the butterflies.  Now the larger butterflies are my design but I took the shape for the smaller ones from a combination of the Butterfly Groovi Plate and Clarity Butterfly Stamp.  I used the No.1 ball tool very lightly to emboss from the plates to give me a very fine line and as I added the whitework to them I adjusted them slightly. ( I stamped various butterflies onto copy paper and picked out the bits I wanted to use by tracing over the designs with my scriber VERY gently. I then added white dots around all the butterflies using one of the first Border plates using the 'in-line' technique.

I added the background using the Sprig Groovi Plate....this is one of my favourite plates, I use it quite a lot....did you know that the design tessellates? A Fabulous Groovi Plate.  I used a combination of Promarkers and Polychromos Pencils for colouring.  

I pierced on the line around the butterflies using a two needle tool. I also played around with the grids to pierce a few designs on a couple of butterflies.  the piercing on the largest is done freehand.  You can see from the picture how I have used the Grid Plate to add the dots to the butterfly and then colouring in from the back. 

I pierced around the Frame and cut away the excess parchment to give a picot edge.  I then cut around all the butterfly wings so that they can be raised.

Stage two shows how I made a hinge with tape onto another piece of parchment so I could match the Frame size and get the Sprig Design in the exact same position for the backing piece as it is on the Front piece.  I coloured the frame with  Promarkers.  I love the way I can get seamless shading with promarkers, especially on larger areas.  No lines or blotches and they work great in combination with Blendable pencils.

Third stage was to cut a piece of Grey board to mount the design onto.  I used a mount board cutter for this (thank you again Carrie for my Present.....see, I do use it!)  I applied Mod Podge to the Grey Board and then covered the front with 12 x 12 Burgundy card.  I trimmed the corners, folded the excess over the back and once again applied Mod Podge to keep the card in place.  I then cut another Piece of Burgundy card to fit the back which again was coated in Mod Podge.
Despite how tidy and prepared I was, I managed to get a sticky bit of Mod Podge on the front so this meant that I would have to disguise it.  Solution...give the whole thing a further coat of Mod Podge.  It gives a great sheen to the piece...it was looking a bit flat before.

Once it was all dry I attached the framed sprig piece to the centre using Large Double Sided Red Tape.

Now to attach the Front piece of the design I simply used my Pergamano Glue behind the bodies of all the butterflies and using a cocktail stick I applied glue to the inner part of the frame, laid the top piece directly over the piece already mounted.  I then laid several layers of copy paper over the top and used my hand to apply pressure.   I left it for an hour (I know Perga Glue dries quick but I wasn't tempting fate) before going back to then begin lifting the wings up.

See how the sprig design matches
and the reason for the dots around the butterflies......
I made a card similar to this years ago and the cut edge wasn't very neat (not the picot)
so this time I decided to add the dots knowing they would give a better finish to the edges.

So this is my design sample for the challenge, I do hope you like it..
I also hope that you will enter the Challenge
First Prize is a £50 gift voucher for Claritystamp Ltd
(not to be sneezed at!!)
The winner is chosen at random
The top 5 favourites are chosen by the Design Team.

So go on, give it a go.  It's a great chance to showcase your work!!
You never know where it will lead!!!

To see all the Design Team Samples click on the following link....I am sure you will be delighted.
http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

And remember there is also the fabulous Calendar Challenge from Barbara Gray too.

Happy Crafting
And Good luck

Emma xx