A few Social Butterflies

I may have mentioned before that I'm really trying to be more thoughtful in my craft purchases since I already have so. many. stamps. I might ask myself, "Do I have something similar to this stamp set?" or "Could I (or will I) use this set in more than one way?" Even just waiting to place an order instead of rushing to get the latest new thing helps me realize I don't need all the things. (Want is sometimes another matter.)

So instead of buying new stamps, it's fun to pull out ones I have that I haven't used in a very long time (or maybe ever. Oops). It's almost like they're new again. I've seen this referred to as "shopping your stash," which is a good description. That's what I did with the Social Butterflies stamp and die set (Taylored Expressions).

The Social Butterflies set is one I received as part of Taylored Expressions' virtual Stamp Joy event in October 2020, but I hadn't used it since then. For these first two cards, I stuck with bright single-color butterflies. After stamping and die cutting all the butterflies, I combined them with coordinating card stock on otherwise neutral card bases. (I think that red color at the bottom of the cards is almost too bright. I probably should have used a different color, but I already had everything stamped and cut, so I went with it.) All the butterflies are popped up with foam tape -- I placed it just behind the body of each butterfly so the wings can be gently folded up.

For the next two cards I wanted to make the butterflies multicolored. I used the same red, orange, and yellow colors as in the cards above -- since they are next to each other on the color wheel, they work together well -- but I left out the purple. For each butterfly I stamped the "filler" image first. I applied one color to the whole stamp and then added a little bit of a second color before stamping. (Using ink cubes instead of full-size ink pads makes this easier.) Then I stamped the outline image and die cut the butterflies. On these two cards most of the butterflies are glued directly to the card bases; just the two that are meant to look like they're flying away are popped up. I finished all four of the cards with clear confetti sequins to add a little bit of bling. 

I'm going to have to do some more shopping in my craft room! Thanks for stopping by!