BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY FOR MDS MONDAY BLOG CHALLENGE

I really had to play around with this in my mind before I knew what I wanted to create for the MDS Monday Blog shaped card challenge - then it was figuring out how. I've been working on this for a few days and having THE BEST TIME - especially after I printed my tests and saw that my ideas were working! I'm going to get right to my finished card (two variations, in fact) and then lots more photos of how to make it. At the end of this post I'll give you some alternate ways to approach the card and construction.

BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY CARD

("au naturel")

I thought the butterfly looked a lot like a Blue Morpho, so I looked at lots of photos before coloring. This is how it looks finished, printed on my HP printer. All the blue coloring was achieved with lots of oval punches filled with DSP and layered over each other (overlapped). The Poppy Parade color on the edges and More Mustard on the body are both part of a paintbrush layer, which I also used to fill in different shades of blue in little gaps. The butterfly stamp image is mostly the default black, but I thought my first test print was too dark so I added a white, 100% opacity (x-0, y-0 orientation) shadow and then recolored the lines on the wings with blues.

MDS elements Wonderful Wings (Butterfly2) stampbrush, Summertime Splendor DSP (Orchids pattern), oval punches, freeform paint and recoloring tools.

 HYBRID VARIATION

 This one shows how I added to the body and wing edges with a Basic Black marker (fine tip) and added sparkle to the wings with Dazzling Effects (you could also use Dazzling Diamonds Glitter). Also note that in this sample I didn't completely cut out the antennae. This gives them more stability.

BUTTERFLY CARD - OPEN

Later in this post are photos of another way to fold the card.

The sentiment is a stampbrush from the Cottage Garden set. I dropped a blue shadow on it, and increased the blur and opacity so it looks sponged. I used the coloring tool to color the little butterfly blue. There are a lot of sentiments that would work well with this card!

HOW I CREATED & COLORED MY BUTTERFLY CARD

Start by applying the butterfly image to an 8.5x11 landscape page. Enlarge it to desired size and crop it in half. Copy it and switch the crop to the opposite side. Be prepared to keep tweaking your sizing as you go. Line the halves up to make a whole butterfly in one corner; check and note the position coordinates for the "y" or top margin; move the right hand half to the opposite corner and make sure the "y" is still what it was before you moved it.

Apply an oval punch, fill with the Summertime Splendor orchid DSP, then "play" with your oval until you have the coloring and size you want by resizing, double-clicking the oval and zooming in or out on the DSP and moving it to the portion of the DSP you want to use. I used parts of the petals for all my ovals. Position the oval over the part of the stamp you want to color and love the layer behind the stamp. THIS IS THE BASIC PROCESS FOR USING DSP TO COLOR THE IMAGE. Create multiple ovals this way, copy them and reuse them, tweak them as you go, and copy and mirror them for parts of the opposite wing. When you have all the ovals you need layered to best effect for one wing, use the grouping tool to link them so you can move that layer as a unit. Take your time and enjoy the process! VARIATION: Go hybrid and simply print the uncolored image and color it with markers or ink!

After you finish your DSP ovals layer, add touches of other colors by creating a paint layer. Color this layer on top of the stamp, then move it to the back when done. I also used the coloring tool on the stamp to color some of the lines blue. VARIATION: Skip the DSP-filled oval shapes and use the paint tool to create a full-color layer.

Apply sentiment stampbrush, drop shadow, color if desired, and print the page.

Trim excess off the top. If desired, you can use your Trimmer to pre-cut the straight top/bottom edges of the sentiment section, if you want it rectangular. Fold along the butterfly body edge on the left side.

This is a test print I made on copy paper before coloring. I used this to check my size and that my halves matched up when folded, and to decide the shape I wanted for inside the card. The shape you see is what I had after fussy-cutting the butterfly with the left side folded to meet the right side. For my final card I decided to cut the center section where the horizontal fold lines are in this photo.

When you bring the folded edge of the left side over to meet the right (and make a whole body), you will make a second fold in the center of the sentiment section, essentially creating a z-fold. NOTE: It may be easier to do this after cutting out the left side wing (see the next three photos)

BE SURE TO CUT THE LEFT SIDE BOTTOM OF THE BODY WITH THE CARD FOLDED. YOU CAN DECIDE LATER IF YOU WANT TO TRIM OFF THE UNCOLORED PART OF THE BODY. (See how the body looks cut out in the image below)

Cut out the butterfly. If you want the antennae to have more stability, don't cut all the way around them.

After the left side is cut out and "free" you can more easily fold it to meet the other side and create the center fold.

When if is folded, the butterfly will look whole!

Cut out the right side. If the center panel top/bottom was not precut, trim the top.

Fold to close and finish fussy-cutting the body.

Finish trimming bottom edge of center section. If desired, trim antennae.

If desired, trim off the uncolored sides of the body bottoms (where they extend past the center section). They will be a little less stable and may not look quite as matched up when card is closed, but look a little better when it is open.

ALTERNATE WAY OF FOLDING THE CARD

This gateway-style fold is a little trickier to achieve, and the closed card tends to lay a little less flat than the z-fold. The advantage is that the sentiment doesn't have a crease line down the middle, but you also have to size your sentiment to fit in a narrower space so the folds are at either end of the sentiment. With this fold, both body sections have to be folded, so you can start with those folds and then bring them together and manually press down to make the gateway fold. .For cleaner creases, you can score it. If the space between the butterfly halves is a length you can easily divide and score so the body halves will meet, that makes scoring in the right spots easier. You'll probably have to use test prints to get the spacing right to do this, including the sizing of the sentiment. Although there are rulers on the MDS work screen, sometimes printing shrinks or enlarges things just a tiny fraction - and for a card like this where the images have to meet when folded, a tiny fraction can throw that off.

Here is the original challenge sample template - note that although an apple shape was used, the idea behind the challenge was to use ANY shape of choice from an MDS stampbrush or punch.