Watercolour butterflies

This 3D embossing folder faux cast iron tutorial caught my eye in a Pinterest email and, rather than just file it away as I usually do with these things, I actually got out my Big Shot, some black card, embossing folders and gilding wax, and had a play. This technique would work better with the deeper 3D embossing folders and I do have a couple, but nothing floral, and I fancied doing florals this time. Although I wasn’t making the panels specifically for using on cards, I was aware that the twins’ birthday was imminent and if it worked out then I might be able to use them on their cards.

Of course, once I’d made the panels, I had to figure out what to put on top of them. I already had my watercolours out with the intention of starting another Wanderlust project, so I die-cut some butterflies from watercolour paper and set about painting them. Once they were dry I drew the veins on the wings with a fine-tip marker, added dots of gold sparkle, and a touch of white along the outside edges of the wings.

Then all I had to do was assemble them. The panel was simply stuck down with double-sided tape. I took advantage of the fact that the watercolour paper had curled slightly by only gluing down the bottom half of the butterflies and letting the wing tips lift off the card base.

Supplies:

• dies:
  Clearly Besotted – butterfly duo
• embossing folders:
  Crafter’s Companion – delicate florals
  Sizzix – groovy flowers
• watercolour:
  Daniel Smith – pthalo blue, french ultramarine, pyrrhol scarlet, new gamboge, hematite genuine
• ink:
  Distress oxide – bundled sage
• gilding wax:
  Art Alchemy metallique – old silver, white gold
  Art Alchemy antique brilliance – red amber
• pens:
  Copic multiliner – black 0.1
• embellishments:
  Imagination Crafts detail sparkle – gold gilt
• paper and card:
  watercolour paper
  Papermill Direct – plain black 250gsm
  Hunkydory