Severnista

It’s peak butterfly season in the South and I expect to see more in the garden soon. In the meantime back in the craft room we reinvent paper wings using steel cut butterflies also known as crafting dies.

Many craft companies and designers have released various butterfly dies, some that are meant to be solo and ones that come in sets with stamps and stencils.

Following is a craft project that I did a few years ago using two dies from the Spellbinders die set Wonderful Wings given to me by a fellow crafting friend. The finished project included nine sets of four A4 cards, each featuring this beautiful butterfly die.

The project originally came about as a challenge inspired by Justine Hovey ‘s series of YouTube videos on how to use up patterned paper. These are the cute paper pads that card makers tend to collect, save, but sometimes rarely use. Find her videos here.

Note: Find these 6×6 paper pads on Scrapbook.com, Simon Says Stamp, or Michael’s.

I was heading to a family gathering/ reunion and decided to give a set of blank cards to all the ladies attending. Each card was the same design with variations between the two butterfly dies, either layered against another patterned butterfly or paired with a white one or vice versa. And of course each was styled using different combinations of patterned paper. No two were alike.

Every card was unique and each set connected in some way to another set as I worked my way through paper pads and fashioned patterns and colors together.

In the end they felt like artist cards: each unique, each belonging to a themed set of four and each connecting to the larger collection of all 36 cards. It was an excellent challenge to use up craft paper while also creating gifts for others.

This project required a lot of passes through the die cutting machine. If you’re like me and love to do big projects for holidays or special occasions consider investing in Anna Griffin’s Empress Elite or Empress Mini Die- cutting and Embossing machine. Though I still use a manual machine, the electric Empress really helps with taking the strain off my lateral epicondylitis injury and would also benefit those with arthritis. It’s been such a great investment, very easy to use and I only wish I had purchased it sooner.

Do you like to craft large card sets for gifts? Do you have lots of patterned paper collected that you’d like to turn into cards? Check out Justine Hovey’s videos on what to do with patterned paper or find a simple butterfly die and start crafting!