Colourful Swallowtail

The current challenge over at CAS Watercolour is Colourful Butterflies. My absolute favourite butterfly stamp is this old Swallowtail stamp from Stampin' Up which I feel I can use over and over and over, and constantly find new ways of using it. This time I decided to use the faux watercolour technique. 

I coloured the stamp with Tim Holtz Distress markers and spritzed it with water before stamping onto watercolour paper. The first time, I didn't quite manage to place the stamp as I wanted it, so I used that first attempt for my tag, die cutting it with Stitched Tags Nesting Dies. I heat embossed a sentiment in white using STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2 to the tag. 

My second attempt at stamping the swallowtail turned out better as I was patient enough to ensure even pressure all across the stamp and really pressing it into the paper before removing it. I added a sentiment using STAMPlorations Happy Birthday and splattered some ink onto the white space for added interest.

I'm also linking up the card over at Cardz4Galz where the theme is Wings, Seize the Birthday where the theme is Butterflies and Stamping Sensations where the theme is Things with Wings.

Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2, Happy Birthday

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine, Tim Holtz Distress Markers

Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

Rainbows, Rainbows, Rainbows

Long time no see! How are you? Has spring caught up with you yet? The daffodils are already in bloom in the garden and the conservatory is nice and warm in the afternoon. And it's getting lighter in the mornings which is great, it's just that little bit easier to head off to work when it isn't completely pitch dark.  

I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that you can never have too many unicorns or rainbows in your life. So I thought I would send a few countless rainbows your way today.

Today's card is inspired by several challenges. Firstly, I cannot resist a good rainbow so I had to play along with the current Fusion challenge. I'm also linking up with Lawn Fawnatics where the theme is "What's the weather" and Just Us Girls where the theme is Birthday. 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn and matching die

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles, Rainbow, Puffy Cloud Border die, Simple Puffy Clouds, Simple Puffy Cloud Frames, Happy Birthday Line Border

Ink and Colouring: Distress Paints, Copics, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, gold and silver Sharpie

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka, Let's Polka in the Dark, Really Rainbow, silver glitter card