Butterflies and Lilacs for AHSC #268

Good Saturday morning, crafty friends!  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with some kind of special plans to celebrate Father's Day tomorrow.  I've had an absolutely crazy week so I nearly missed out on getting to play with this week's sketch at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog.  However, I had put too much time into deciding what to do with this one to call it quits so after numerous revisions, this is what I came up with.  Just a quick reminder that submissions for each weekly sketch close at 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central.  You may use whatever products/brands you choose so long as your project is based on the current sketch, and you can enter your projects HERE.  Now on to my project!

details:  I finally got around to inking this beautiful lilac themed stamp set from the "A Mother's Love" set which is a retired hostess rewards set, as well as the sweet little butterflies from a more recent set that was cardmaking set featured with the Chelsea Gardens papers. 

I tried multiple color combos and stamping techniques before I was satisfied with how to line the lilac and leaf images and I found it easier to stamp the bolder image first and then line the lighter, base image up and stamp it second.  I finally settled on Amethyst and Gypsy for the flowers and Sweet Leaf and Topiary for the leaves.  I used Tangerine and black Memento ink for the butterflies.  For a little added visual interest, I stamped both the large and smaller butterflies on both tones of Tangerine cardstock and used the lighter sets for the top layers.  I'm not sure it shows in my photo, but I also used some tiny bits of 3-D foam tape under the wing of the top layer of the larger butterfly and under both wings of the smaller butterflies.

For the lovely little tag, I used Gypsy ink to stamp the sentiment from the same Chelsea Gardens set onto a bit of Sweet Leaf cardstock which I edged with Topiary ink using a sponge dauber (one of my favorite tools and effects).  I also popped the tag up with 3-D tape and added this little knotted bit of sheer purple ribbon.  I think I could keep playing with this card and sketch forever,  but I have to move on to finishing up some Father's Day cards as well as some sympathy and thinking-of-you cards.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, and I really hope you get a chance to create something with this week's sketch or at least check out all the lovely artwork the design team and participants have to show you at AHSC.  Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette