The Wacky Watercooler March Madness Blog Hop

It's time for another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop and this one is all about the madness one finds in March.  They don't have that old saying "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" for nothing.  Think about it for a moment.  How many animals can manage to do a complete metamorphosis into another animal in a month?  How many months can be mild enough for a person to go looking for flowers pushing through the soil and yet also be fierce enough to make even a heavy winter coat seem to thin to keep warm?  It's madness and we're bringing madness to our blog hop by means of fancy folds instead of "normal" cards.  Are you ready for some madness?

As you will remember, if you've wandered through our blog hops before, our blog hop is presented in a circular fashion.  What does that mean?  Wherever you begin in our blog hop, whether you go forwards or backwards through the participants, eventually you will wind up precisely where you began.  I hope you'll take time to visit all the participating blogs and, perhaps, leave a short message letting us know  what you've thought of our posts.

If you've been moving forwards through the blog hop, you'll have arrived here from the very creative Deborah Smart.  Weren't her projects terrific?

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For my first project I'm revisiting a fold that I haven't used for a while, the "Z" fold.  This is a fun fold which dresses up even the most simple card.  The one I've created, for example, is really just a single layer, for the most part.  Yes, I've added another butterfly on top of the stamped butterfly and I've also added two die-cut circles on the inside of the card, but that's the only layering for this card.  That doesn't mean that all "Z" folds are that simple.  You can add layers and ribbons and lace and endless embellishments.  For mine, however, it was really all about the butterflies and so I had to keep it simple.

If you look closely, you can see that I've cut the butterflies which were stamped with Marina Mist ink onto the single layer of Heavy Whisper White.  I used the matching die from the Butterfly thinlits dies.  I didn't cut the whole butterfly out.  I stopped halfway so that the butterfly could stick straight out while the card could be folded at the halfway point along the butterlies.

I stamped three of the pretty lacy butterflies from the Butterfly Basics stamp set with Versamark on Vellum cardstock and then heat embossed them using White embossing powder.  Attached to the centres of the three blue butterflies, the vellum butterflies are wonderfully dainty.  

For the inside of the card I used the Botanical Builder framelits dies to cut a flower from a piece of Marina Mist and the centre of the flower in Whisper White and also in Old Olive.  For the centre I added a large Rhinestone as well.  I also cut a fern from the Old Olive.  The die-cuts frame the circles nicely and add a nice touch to the butterflies, don't you think?

To finish the card off I sponged Marina Mist and Old Olive ink over much of the remaining white area and then added a bit of subtle stamping using the Timeless Textures stamp set and off-stamped ink.

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For my final card I've turned to another special fold which I haven't used in several years.  This one is the Twisted Fold.  I love this particular fold because it looks very complicated and yet is basically quite easy to make.  You can use both the front of the card and the inside to tuck a little surprise into the folded area, which is like a little slanted pocket.  Since this one is a birthday card for a nine-year-old girl who loves flowers, bling and surprises, I've only used the inside as a "pocket" for a gift card and the front it all dressed up with flowers and a shiny gold butterfly.  

My colours for this card were based on the Designer Paper which I had decided to use.  The Wildflower Fields Designer Paper (from the current Sale-a-bration brochure) has a pretty design of floating Dandelion seeds on Calypso Coral.  Another design which I used from this Designer Paper is basically white with sprigs of Old Olive and touches of Calypso Coral and Hello Honey.

My base cardstock is the Heavy Whisper White which I turned into the Twisted Fold card.  For the top triangle I used a layer of Basic Grey and topped it with the floating Dandelions.  For the bottom triangle I used a layer of Calypso Coral and topped it with the sprigs.  I did that for both the front and the inside of the card.  Then I used the Number of Years stamp set and stamped the floral sprigs using Old Olive and Calypso Coral inks.  For the Happy Birthday I used Hello Honey ink.  The butterfly is cut from Gold Foil.

For the inside of the card I stamped the sentiment from the Number of Years set on the plain white side and then cut a "9" from Basic Grey cardstock using the Large Numbers framelits.  Once I had attached the "9" to the upper triangle, I used Gold Dazzling Details to add little dots all over the Basic Grey.

I know that it won't just be the gift card inside which will make the little girl squeal with delight.

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And that's it for my projects.  I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed creating them.  From here you'll be returning to the beginning of the circle again, and another wonderfully creative stamper, Gail Allen.

If you get a moment, I'd love it if you would leave a comment.