Monday 24 November 2014

When things don't go according to plan

Hello again - I've got my new computer up and running and have lots of blogging to catch up on! And I'm going to start off with a card that simply would NOT go according to plan. The current Butterfly Challenge is "Paper Pieced Butterflies" and I decided to use this lovely big Monarch Butterfly stamp that I got from the USA many year ago. In my mind, it looked lovely, stamped onto three papers, cut out and pieced, and framed with swirls of black peel-offs that have been sitting in my stash for years.

I tamped it first onto a green patterned paper, then onto an orange/yellow/brown paper then onto one in shades of red, cutting out segments of the wing markings from the redder paper to piece onto the orange/yellow/brown one and piecing this onto the green background.  It looked fine as I was doing it, but now the card is finished, I don't think there is enough contrast between the two papers I've used for the butterfly.

Then on to the peel offs. Talk about a mind of their own! They seemed to be riddled with static electricity, and however much I tried to relax them, to hold them with two tools and to position them carefully, they went where THEY wanted to, and despite being called peel-offs, stuck resolutely to their chosen places and pulled the background paper off with them if I tried to move them. So my swirls are all over the place, and puckered in places too. Because that's how they insisted on placing  themselves! I did my best to cover the worst with some flowers, but I'm still not thrilled with the result. It's "not bad" but it's absolutely nothing like what I'd had in mind when I set out to make this!

2 comments:

Liz said...

You've paper pieced the butterfly beautifully! If you hadn't said about your hiccup with the peeloffs, I never would have known. They look fine to me, but I know what you mean about them not always going where you intended! xx

Mrs A. said...

Tis beautiful. I think the contrast on the papers looks great on that large butterfly and like Liz said would not have known your hiccup with the peel offs. I love the green background too. Thankyou for fluttering by #19. hugs Mrs A.