Colorful Butterfly Card ft. Distress Inks

EDIT: DT Favorite at Cards in Envy & Top Pick at STAMPlorations
 

I believe one of the greatest joy of crafting is experimenting and creating something different from what we originally planned. It's so fun and such an invaluable experience to explore the different possibilities and yield unexpected results! Do you feel the same way?! Well this card is the product of today's experiment, and I quite like how it turned out! 
 
I was inspired by both of Elina's cards and I wanted to create something monochromic with a heavily inked background. I wasn't sure how I wanted to incorporate the other elements (bold colored image, splatters, black scripty sentiment, layers of cardstock) into my project so I decided to create a card for another challenge until I got my mojo back.

 This is one of the sketches I had in mind using the elements from CAS-ual Fridays Tic Tac Toe Challenge before I came up with the design of that first card. My original sketch includes a white heat embossed "Be-YOU-tiful" sentiment but there wasn't enough space, so I left it out. Now that I'm looking at it and comparing it with the other card, I feel like it definitely needs a sentiment LOL!

 

I used sequins, monochromic, enamel dots, twine, no patterned paper and glitter or sparkle. That's three lines! The ombre green-teal-blue colors are inspired by the wood planks from Becca's mood board. 

A close-up of the butterfly. I colored both the butterfly and the background with distress inks and ink blending tools, which are my all time favorite coloring mediums! I just love the intense and vibrant colors you get from blending distress inks. For the butterfly, I also added a generous amount of wink of stella to its wings for some extra sparkle.

Then I thought about creating another pink/coral background that would contrast with the colors on the butterfly. This time, instead of using silver thread, I decided to add some silver splatters. My original plan was to create a warm-toned ombre background and mount it on black cardstock so it has a thin, black frame. That would indeed be very similar to Elina's butterfly card. But then I had a light bulb moment of placing the two ombre panels on top of each other. 

In the past, whenever I was trying to make a colorful/rainbow card, I've always struggled with putting so many colors onto one single panel (like this card here). It never occurred to me that I could separate the colors and piece them back together like this! It might seem obvious and perhaps a bit trivial to others, but that's a small discovery for me. 

Here's a close-up of the sentiment from Winnie & Walter. I like the scripty, black sentiment on Elina's card, and think that this "you are flawless" sentiment is perfect for the gorgeous butterfly from Tim Holtz. I've mixed some perfect pearls with water to create this shimmery splattered look. The sketch I'm using for this card is from STAMPlorations. I've changed the orientation, so it might be a little tricky to recognize. Here's a DT card using the same orientation. :)

I really love the torn edges of the coral panel. They add quite a bit of interest to this card, don't you think? I think the white edges definitely help the colors pop more and create a "framed" effect like when you layer different colored cardstock together. Hope you enjoyed today's creation, and thanks for stopping by! 

Challenges Entered:
   

CASEplorations / Becca's Birthday Bash / CAS-ual Fridays 152 / STAMPlorations July Sketch / SSS Wednesday: Things with Wings

 
Cards in Envy: HOT Colors / Verve Inspiration Challenge / Penny Black and More: ATG with Stamps
  
CWS #4: Ink Splatters / ACB: K is for Kindness / Die Cut Divas: Make it Glitter

Winnie & Walter: The Gossip Column / Virginia's View #22: All About Colors