Oval Butterfly

I found this technique at the Stamper's Quest Magazine
It still makes me laugh when I look at it. (you can see the original inspiration card if you click the link for the e-zine above). I really loved the look of the technique and I just got the Inspired By Nature stamp set from Stampin' Up and I wanted to use the grass instead of flowers. The original plan was to mask the grass and stamp a lions face so it looked like it was peaking through the grass. I found a roll of Magic Mask that hadn't been used in a long time...cut out a rectangle the size of my card and then used my Creative Memories oval cutter to cut the oval out of the center. That was the mask for my oval. Well, I sponged my ink around the edges, stamped my grass... the lion face just didn't work like I had planned. It was a little too big for the oval and the grass...and it was looking off to one side. So, I spent the evening looking at the card...trying to figure out what would be the best thing to fill that space...words? a bird? a bug? Ahhhh....a butterfly! I stamped and colored the butterfly, then stamped it and colored it again to cut out for dimension. I was pretty satisfied with the card...proud of my choice to fill that space. It had been a while since I had seen the original card that had inspired me...I remembered the oval and flowers...but not the butterfly. I really thought that was my own genius to add the butterfly. Well...I was in for a surprise when I went back a while later and saw that butterfly on the original! LOL! I still like the card...even if it isn't as "original" as I thought it was. It's a great technique and really fun to do. I think I would like to try making a mask from some of my Nestabilities. I gotta make a list of things I want to do!!

You really should check out the Stamper's Quest Magazine....lots of inspiration there!