It's Completely Collagical - Tuesday Trigger

My card share today was made for the current Tuesday Trigger at the Moxie Fab World blog. There is so much to be discovered in the trigger image that it really takes a little studying. When I looked it here's what stood out to me: stamps, butterflies, buttons, flowers, blue, pinks, tan and ivory. I knew I wanted to make postage stamps a major part of my design and I also wanted to create a card that like this image, would keep the viewer lingering as they discovered lots of little things to see.

Image Credit

I used the MFT Postage Stamp Stax to cut some various stamps and then started off on a bit of a treasure hunt for papers that would have some small elements that could be cropped into appropriate sizes while remaining a complete enough image to be recognizable. It took quite a bit of time but I was ultimately pleased with what I was able to find in my collection of papers and the whole process was fun. It was like being on a treasure hunt.

With the stamps made, it came time to find some butterflies. Now I don't have a craft room full of supplies but I thought for sure somewhere, on some piece of paper or in some small ziplock I surely had to have some butterflies that would work. Alas, not a one! Time to put Plan B into action and go hybrid. My years as a graphic designer have allowed me to amass a big clipart/stock image collection and since I have the ability to do it easily I'll often find myself taking this route when I have something very specific in mind.

After a little photoshop work to change the color (this butterfly image was originally yellow and black) to a blue I printed out a couple of butterflies in various sizes on my inkjet printer.  The print outs were a little dull and I thought I'd like to add a bit of shine. Instead of using Glossy Accents (it would be a mess for me and take days to dry in such a large area) I applied a piece of clear packing tape over them and burnished it down well before I did my fussy cutting. Both the butterflies and the white edges of the stamps (which were cut from a glossy Kromecote stock) add an extra dimension of shine to the finished card.

I spent a couple of hours making on this card, which is by far longer than I've spent on any card in recent memory but ultimately I feel I achieved what I had set out to do and totally love the result.

Happy Crafting!

SUPPLIES USED: 

STAMPS: Sentiment (Unknown)

INKS: Hot Fudge (My Favorite Things)

PAPER: Childish Things (Fancy Pants), Follow Your Heart (My Minds Eye), Attic Boutique (Stampin Up), Recollections Solids (Michael's)

DIES: Postage Stamp Stax (MFT)

COLORING MEDIUM: 

OTHER: Paper String (Tim Holtz), Buttons (my stash), Butterfly Image (my image collection)

BASICS: Click HERE to check out my crafting tool bag.