Pretty Butterflies

As promised, here are some step-by-step photographs showing how I color a butterfly with markers. I feel kind of silly about it, because it is so darned easy and probably the only realistic thing that I can successfully color with markers. I also have to give the credit to another Close To My Heart consultant. While the who and when escapes me, it was another consultant who showed some cards on the artwork board of the consultant's web site who inspired me to give this a try. I do know that it was a long time ago - something that stuck!

Anyway, the first thing I do - obviously - is stamp my image on white or Colonial White cardstock, whatever I'm using for the card base. I use regular dye-based black ink. It just needs to be dry.

I use three markers - Autumn Terracotta, Sunflower, and Goldrush. First I outline all of the lines on the butterfly's wings with Autumn Terracotta. Then I color over each of the wings with Sunflower. Whatever blending takes place, happens on its own. The third step is to fill in select segments of the wing with Goldrush.

A photo of a Monarch I looked up on Google images revealed that on most, the colors are darker on the upper segments of the wing. Google Images, by the way, is a great source if you want to check out what things really look like.

When I make a card with cut out butterfly images, I don't leave any extra "white space" around the edges as is traditional with many of the images we cut out. I also don't try to cut around the skinny antennae. Rather I cut them off and either add black wire antennae or draw them with a My My Legacy Writer. That's it, I think. If you have additional questions, just ask, and I'll do my best to answer them.

The card I made with my colored images was a fun one to put together. I used used the Irish Blessing from the Butterfly Kisses set for the background. The accent on top is part of an oval cut with a Coluzzle template(When, oh when, are my oval Nestabilities going to get here?) and a Stampin 'Up Jumbo Pewter Eyelet. For this card, I drew in the antennae.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White, Black, and Garden Green Cardstock; Black, Garden Green, and Bamboo ink pads; Autumn Terracotta, Sunflower, and Goldrush markers; Butterflies, Butterfly Kisses, The Good Life; Stampin' Up Pewter Jumbo Brads; Ribbon from Michael's; Coluzzle oval template, knife, and cutting mat; Black My Legacy Writer.

How was your Wednesday? Mine was OK. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous. No one should have to work with it's so nice outside. I'm still blowing my nose every couple of minutes and coughing my fool head off, particularly at night, which doesn't make for great sleep. I'm OK though. Tomorrow is Thursday already, which means this week, like most, is flying by. With nothing more profound to talk about than the weather and my health, I'll close for tonight. Thanks for stopping, and make it a great day tomorrow!