Happy Birthday

 Happy Friday crafters!  I hope this one will put you in the mood for the weekend ahead!  So bright and cheery isn't it!  Plus I think we have had loads of birthdays this week on the blog so it seemed appropriate for today!  Here's that gorgeous Justrite Butterfly once again, I just can't get enough of it!  If you didn't see the demo of this one last week, here is your recap.  I started with a piece of coconut white card and inked it using three Adirondack inks, Citrus, Wild Raspberry and Purple Twilight.  The Adirondack Brights are more vibrant that the distress inks and that is why I decided to use them instead of my usual (and much loved) Distress inks.  I applied them to the card using a piece of cut 'n dry foam and just did dots of colour all over the cardstock.  Once I was happy that I had saturated the card with enough colour, I dried it well with my heat tool.  This is a very important step so do make sure that it is very dry before proceeding.  I even rubbed it with my anti static pad to remove any hint of moisture that may have been left.  Next I inked the butterfly stamp from Justrite stamps using a clear Perfect Medium pad and stamped it three times, taking care not to overlap them.  I embossed them with WHITE powder (this must be the first powder you use).  Next I stamped the butterfly again in the same manner, but aimed for the open areas more.  You can overstamp the white butterflies and this isn't a problem because this time, we are embossing with clear powder.  If you do the clear embossing first, then the white powder will stick to it and ruin your piece.  If the clear sticks on top of the white, you can't tell so it isn't an issue.  You end up with a lovely textural look from the clear embossed butterflies, almost a ghost image.  I decided to stop here as it was just too pretty.  I matted it in thin mats of white and black.  I made a flower using the Classic Rose die from my new die line and "sugared" it with Iced Snow.  I seated it upon some white tulle and a black jute bow. On vellum, I stamped my sentiment from the Justrite Vintage Rose set using a clear Perfect Medium pad and heat embossed it in white.  I cut it into a strip with a forked end and tucked the other end under my flower.  To complete the card, I made a couple of stick pins using beads from my craft stash and the did some matting with piercing using both black and white cardstock for balance.  I hope I will see that some of you like this one enough to pin it on your Pinterest boards!  Finished dimensions are 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" in size. This one should get you in a cheerful mood, ready for the weekend ahead
A little reminder too, that Julia Watts has shows today on Create and Craft at 8am and 4pm with brand new (and quite lovely) stamps from Creative Expressions.  Her demos will definitely get you inspired to do some crafting this weekend!  All for now, Sue x