Flight of the Butterfly (by Brenda)

Hello everyone, today we are very happy to announce that Brenda Weatherill, a member of our Guest Design Team, is joining our permanent Design Team. Brenda has been a regular contributor on the blog and for our recent batch of TV shows, and her work will be familiar to you all. Please join us in saying welcome to the Team! As always, we like you to get to know us a little bit at the start of our time with Chocolate Baroque, and Brenda has written a short introduction about herself:

I was 'born and bred' as they say, in the Cambridgeshire Fens, and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, as I love the flat and scenic landscape which stretches as far as the eye can see.

I am married with a large family of children and grandchildren, and a good few animals in tow as well, including horses and dogs. I was forced to give up full time work soon after I was diagnosed with MS about twenty years ago, but still work part time in my hubby's office, which keeps me out of mischief.

When I look back, I realise that I have been crafting all my life in one form or another, and as a child, spent many hours sticking bits of card and paper together with flour and water, no fancy glues in those days! Like so many crafters, I did cross stitch and when my children were small, had fun creating 'Blue Peter' inspired makes with them.

My cardmaking addiction started many, many years ago, and from the start, I was drawn to rubber stamping. The obsession grew as I discovered new techniques such as brayering, inking and masking, and I have a particular love of silhouette stamps and Distress Inks. I also have a fascination with skies and creating scenes, and many of my pieces feature a moon or sun. I'm not naturally artistic and can't draw for toffee, but I do love colour and experimenting with colour palettes, which to some might be a bit 'off the wall'.

My Dad, who farmed all his life and grew sufficient garden vegetables to supply a village, taught me to appreciate Nature, animals, and all things botanical, and this continues to provide me with constant inspiration in my daily crafting, along with the rural landscape which surrounds me.

I consider myself to be very fortunate to be able to share my passion for crafting with others through classes, demo's and working on the Design Teams I have been privileged to be part of and have met some wonderful friends along the way.

If asked what my style was, I guess the nickname given to me many moons ago sums it up, 'Botanical Brenda'. I rarely do cute, but if I do, then it will usually be accompanied by the addition of a tree or some flowers.

It is lovely to know a bit more about you Brenda, we look forward to seeing lots more of your beautiful creations.

Thank you for the the warm welcome and introduction Judith, I am so thrilled to be part of this super talented team and have even more opportunities to play with beautiful Chocolate Baroque stamps.

Today I have a card to share with you which is one of the samples made for the recent Hochanda One Day Special which was all about Butterflies.

My starting point was a square of 600gsm Fabriano painted with a thin layer of Gesso, then coloured with Distress Oxide Inks Wilted Violet and Vintage Photo followed by a mask and texture paste to create the 'flight' of the Butterfly. When dry I replaced the mask to colour using the same inks.

Next I randomly stamped around the edges with CB Large Crackle Background using the same DI and added a few Butterflies using one of the new CB Butterfly masks. I stamped the large Butterfly from CB Patchwork Butterfly set, coloured with the same Oxide Inks, cut out and fixed to the base card. The sentiment is from CB Pretty Poppies set and finally I added some pearls to the Butterflies thorax and wire antenna.

Thank you so much for visiting and hope your day is a good and sunny one.