Betterpressed Butterflies

Happy Monday everyone! Did you get any snow? We got about 8.5" but now it's raining/sleeting - yuck!! Perfect time to stay in and craft (after shoveling, of course)!

It's Anything Goes this week for Darnell's IDEAS project - see her fabulous inspiration today at djkardkreations. Since IDEAS has no B for Betterpress, I'm taking advantage of the Anything Goes theme - lol. April will be here soon and I need 6 birthday cards in just the first 9 days of it! Here's a card for the first birthday coming up on April 4th:

Supplies: Paper - Spellbinders Betterpress Porcelain;

Recollections Black; Paper Studio A2 card

Betterpress plates with dies - Spellbinders Butterfly Swirl &

You Are Everything Sentiments

Inks - Spellbinders Betterpress Black & Memento Summer Sky

Other - Crayola pencils; Park Lane gems

I ordered the Betterpress from Spellbinders back in November & have been loving it! I especially love the sentiment sets with everything on one plate plus a matching single die. This butterfly set comes that way for the butterflies, plus it has a separate sentiment with matching die. I bought it at my fave local store, Anchor Paper, who dove right into Betterpress & carries plates from multiple brands.

After pressing the butterflies, I colored them with pencils. Normally I don't like coloring with pencils but I received a beautiful birthday card from Hilary (fiddling about) who'd done her pressed flower image with pencils (she hasn't blogged it yet). Very pretty - thanks again, Hilary! So I decided to try my luck with pencils. Since the butterflies are small, I didn't do much shading.

Next, I die cut the butterfly panel with a stitched rectangle and brushed ink along three edges. Adhered it to a black mat, then an orange A2 card. Added a pressed sentiment with shadow, done with a multiple sentiment plate - love it! Added some rainbow gems among the butterflies - done! I'm adding my card to Darnell's March NBUS Challenge since the press plate is newly used.

Then I had the idea to spray a piece of Betterpress paper with some Hero Arts shimmer sprays and, once dry, press the butterflies. These I went ahead and die cut in one pass with the matching die. I'll save them for future but here's how they turned out (I used black ink but it appears brown on the shimmery background):

And why not another Betterpress card? This time I made a Christmas card with a plate I ordered from Spellbinders when they had a sale right before Christmas. First time using it too! The current Christmas Kickstart Challenge is highlighting the color green so what could be better than a bunch of pine trees?! This is my second entry (max of 3).

Supplies: Paper - Park Lane A2 card; 

scrap of red; Betterpress Bisque

Betterpress Plate with Die - Spellbinders Seasons Greetings Evergreens

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set;

Impression Obsession Cardinals

Betterpress Inks - Leaf & Cosmic Sky

Other - Hero Arts Sparkle Lacquer; R46 Copic; black & white gel pens

Looking at my Betterpress inks, I wanted something more piney than Leaf which is my only green. So, while inking the plate I added a couple layers of Cosmic Sky (medium blue) & then more Leaf - it worked! I did the sentiment with just the Leaf - you can see the difference. I added a line of sparkle lacquer to the base of the pines & then a trio of cardinals which I detailed with gel pens & a Copic.

Thanks for stopping by & have a wonderful day!