Dallas Stampede Circle Card

Hello this is Pam from The Bug Bytes  

Thank you Sheila for having me in your blog.

Since I will be going to stampede I decided to show the circle card I made.

And better grab something to eat & drink - for you are going to see lots and lots of pictures!!

Since I am just recovering and we had to make 100's of card I first planned just for basic if my back got worse. If I could get away with something later then all good. SO here is what I came up with for basic using Photoshop Elements (PSE). If things don't work out then all I had to do was print this out and bring with me.

So here was the basic . I have included the photoshop steps in case you want to see them at my blog as they are lots of pictures

I then duplicated the images and added to letter - again using photoshop as we can align and distribute better

 Now for the project

I cut white cardstock 3 inch x 3 inch and then inked it with 2 shades of blue and then used cuttlebug swirl folder . My handy elf - my dear younger son - had fun cuttlebugging all the cards. I tell you that this guy is the next Tim Holtz in the making!!

So now I got this. Now that I had done this I was set for basic so I was set. But as I felt better having finished it I thought I would do more..

So in the front (raised swirls) I smeared diamond stickles to get the water like effect using my good ol' god given tool - fingers lol

Then at the back I just did the outer corners as the printed  paper is going to cover most of it.

Then at the back stuck the printed paper

Now comes what I want to cut which reflects what I want to represent. First my name -Padma- lotus (ja means born) and the butterfly for my blog - the bug I like (nopes cricky is not on my list) and also for my darling papillons (which by the way is my other blog for digital designs & photos). So I decided to spring load the butterfly. Wow ! what a term. I borrowed the idea from wobblers but no way was I going to make 100's of cards buying that stuff. So I made my own version. Didn't care if it wobbled or not (though it does - ;) but..). I wound 30 gs jewellery wire around momento marker - since that was handy but u can use sharpie or crayon and as the concept was water I did not want to mount it on tape. transparent doublesided tape was not strong enough and before some smarty pants says hot glue!!! I have told you before me & hot glue are not on talking terms!! So it was tacky glue. I just made a circle the shape and size of spring and then stuck that thing on - just place it gently. and add a bead of glue at the top. I did 8 at a time. I had already punched butterflies after inking using MS punch and blinged it. I just added them to the spring and moved them and allowed them to dry a bit and start on next batch of 8

Then I cut some lily's by searching in G and also some lily pads. I think lilies were from Mother's day Bouquet. I tried glimmer misting but did not like the effect as they created drop even if I held it far! While at Micheals found this pink acrylic glitter. I just added that to a disposable cup, added some water, some pearlescent acrylic paint and some drops of tacky glue and then mixed it with a brush and brushed it on. See I got to do some painting! Again another hobby and part of myself is gotten into the cards! Loved the effect

I then used McGill paper blossom tool kit to give dimension to leaf and lotus. My helper elf demonstrating as I photograph. ( A smacking kiss given to my helper. Hmm but the elf complains that is not enough . They want more nowadays . Sigh!!!- so ok - he gets some chocolates too :) )

Then I had the brilliant idea of using pipe cleaners as the center of the flower. So give it a curl and chop chop with cutter and glue dot them - 2 layers of flower alternatively stacked with pistol/stamen made of pipe cleaner at the center

Now the leaf. Ink the sides. I have used Tsukineko momento markers

Again the Mc Gill tool

Turn it over and add marker

So I arrange them and see how they look. Hmmm Something seems missing. Maybe a touch of pink on the leaves to draw the eye and make a triangle composition? Triangle, diamond (not square), cruciform and S shapes are all good composition tricks. So off to add some pink

A little better don't you think?

Maybe just a touch of bling. What about some pearls? Here is my leaf progression

Ok now - Just Right - atleast to me lol

So that's the front (or is the back?)

and the other side

So now off to do assembly line processing of 100 cards. I have finished the butterfly and the leaf and now working on lotus!! So see you again next time! Maybe I can see some of you at Dallas :). 

Thanks again Sassy for having me on your blog today.