Dragon Butterflies

Hello all, and a warm welcome to Words and Pictures on this chilly (where I am, at any rate) February day.  After yesterday's Tin Can Insect Tag, I've got some more insects to share with you today.

I'm here to share two unintentional, accidental tags with you today...  As most of you know, there's been a lot going on here this February.  You've been loyally supporting me through all of it, and I'm so grateful, especially as I've been getting a bit behind with my own visiting - sorry! 

And we're not done with the month yet, so I really wasn't planning on any extra-curricular activity outside of my DT and GDT duties (pleasures, really).

But then the DragonsDream Tag It On recipe bobbed up - Orange, Purple, Butterflies - and I couldn't resist it.  Okay, they're not my usual colours, but I did have a brief but passionate fling with the Fall Distress colours when they got released as full members of the Distress palette, so it was a real pleasure to rekindle an old flame - Seedless Preserves and Ripe Persimmon (and sunglasses) at the ready.

The other requirements are that the project be a tag, and that you use at least one real stamp.

Well, I'm afraid I ended up with two tags by mistake, partners in crime and colour (this happened before when I used these colours in my Companion Piece - odd that they seem to travel in pairs!). And my stamping is subtle, but I promise you it's there...



I always had the plan for a layered tag, on which I would use the Movers and Shapers butterflies to cut apertures through from tag A to tag B.


So I started with some wrinkle-free distress technique à la M. Holtz eemself...  Seedless Preserves and Ripe Persimmon on the craft mat, along with a couple of spritzes of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Flower Power.


The first tag ended up with pretty full on colour and, after a spritz of water onto the mat, I used the second tag to mop up the rest creating a much lighter version.  I knew that from the Companion Piece and was ready for it.













The accidental second tag arose when I realised that the butterflies cut from the pale tag A really looked best against dark tag B, but that's not what they would be sitting on.


Really, I needed a new tag C for them to perch on... but then if you make a new dark tag C, you'll also end up with a lighter tag D once you've mopped up your inks, so why not do another whole layered tag with the reverse colour-way?


That way you'd get light and dark butterflies, light and dark foreground tags AND light and dark background tags... and therefore two projects.  Clear as mud, eh?!  Well, that's where I ended up in any case.

I also, at some point in the wrinkle-free process, used both a book page and a piece of white corrugated card to mop up some of the ink - they were both sitting there within reach.

And then I thought, well - why not create some extra butterflies with those too?!

The original dark tag was done on a piece of paper cut from Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stash, so it had a flourish built into it.

But my new light tag D needed one as well so I stamped Tim's lovely flourish on in a mixture of the two DIs.







I also stamped it onto the main bodies of my butterflies, front and back.  To further highlight the flourishes throughout the two pieces, I added some doodling with the Inkssentials white pen.

I layered up the card butterflies with the bookpage versions and used the tiny stapler to attach them.















They're glued onto the tags with Glossy Accents and some patience!

The corrugated card obviously only got ink on its ridges when I used it to mop up, so I spritzed it with the Glimmer Mist to get some orange down into the valleys - makes them nice and sparkly as a happy side effect.

I could really have done with some sunshine to show you the full effect...






I had some problems with filling the butterfly apertures...  Initially, I handwrote some words using the white pen, and doodled an inner frame to echo the butterfly shape.

But I decided I didn't like the look of the writing.  So I used some white acrylic paint to fill in the butterfly shape I'd drawn, thinking that would link in with the white highlighting elsewhere.















However, it picked up colour from the tag beneath, creating two new pastel shades of purple and orange, which ended up completely delighting me.  I'd never have thought of doing it myself!















I used the Hero Arts alphabet to stamp my words - fly high, fly free - rather than risk the writing again, and added a couple more doodled flourishes to the wings.

As I was layering the tags up, I found I couldn't really see enough of my background tags (B and D, were they?  I don't know, I've lost count).

I think you'll see why I didn't want to lose sight of them completely...

I contemplated tearing the edges - that would be my usual go-to method but, hey, we're in a whole new colour world, let's go for a whole new way of trimming a tag.












So I used the X-Cut edge punch I got at The Range at Christmas.









I had some trouble negotiating the corners - my inner perfectionist has had to obey TH and "embrace imperfection".








I'll just have to deal with the fact that not all the corners are as neat as they might be!

Anyway, with a bit of tweaking, there's a lovely extra view of the tags underneath, and some more dimensionality to the structure, which I always enjoy.

I used the same DIs and mist to dye some bits of seam binding so that I could have co-ordinating ribbons to top the tags off.

They're tied, of course, in bows to give just a hint of a couple of extra butterflies.

So, I hope you've been able to cope with this abrupt departure from my usual colours... Don't worry - normal service will be resumed shortly!

Thanks so much for stopping by - it's an honour to have your company, and a delight to read your comments - every single one is greatly appreciated.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with plenty of time for whatever makes you happy!

I'm entering this in the DragonsDream Tag It On challenge recipe: Orange, Purple, Butterflies




Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.
From The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein

A fallen blossom
returning to the bough, I thought --
But no, a butterfly.
Arakida Moritake

In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!
Dr. Seuss