Madam Butterfly in Magpie Heaven!

Last week , to my great excitement, the Lynne Perrella Asian stamps I ordered from Country View Crafts arrived - hurray! I love all Lynne Perrella's stamps and these sheets she has designed for Paper Artsy are just so inspirational I couldn't wait to start a project. I then spotted the Country View Crafts Challenge quite by chance while shopping on their site for shrink plastic. I had until the end of April to enter (!!!) That didn't give me much time, but I've only just started blogging and I wanted to give it a shot. The theme was butterflies and I thought - those wonderful Asian themed stamps and who else but
 'Madam Butterfly'! Here is my butterfly project for http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/

 I had a supply of Paper Artsy Fresco paints, a little pyramid box from Retro Cafe Arts, some Graphic 45 paper with parasols and some tiny cocktail umbrellas - I was ready to go!

I sponged Snowflake Fresco paint by Paper Artsy onto the two sections of the pyramid. I then layered with Beach Hut on the larger section and stenciled with Beach Hut on the smaller piece that forms the centre.

I stamped the Lynne Perrella images with Ranger Archival ink, heat set and coloured them with Frescos: Haystack, London Bus and Victorian Velvet. I stuck triangles of Graphic 45 on alternative sections.

Then it was time to flip over and paint what would be the outside of my oriental pyramid - or should that be a pagoda? Actually when I had finished I thought the box looked rather like a lotus flower!

I decorated my stamped images with paper cut butterflies from Retro Cafe Art Gallery.

I then embossed with detail gold on acetate using the butterfly from Butterfly Girl by Stampington 'Clearly Impressed' and attached these to a cocktail umbrella which I eventually slipped into the top of the box.

When I added some butterflies cut from Graphic 45 'Steampunk' design paper and combined the two sections of the pyramid my Madam Butterfly box was beginning to resemble the lotus flower. I then stamped in black 'Versafine' ink on tissue, heat set and painted the faces only of the images on the reverse side in Snowflake Fresco, attaching them to the box with Satin Glaze from Fresco and a coating of the glaze over the top. I wanted the faces to stand out, but the images to appear to emerge from out of the flowery stencils.

I finished off with a ribbon, an acetate butterfly and some detail picked out in Fresco Old Gold.

I cut out lanterns from Graphic 45 and punched out some Lynne Perrella small flower images decorating them with a small blue gem. I drew on a tassel and a cord in black fine pen (so the lanterns appeared to be suspended from something) on a background of Ice Blue Fresco.

I tried to use colours from the Graphic 45 that would complement the Fresco paints.

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It was so much fun using these beautiful images by Lynne Perrella to create this box for my first Country Crafts Challenge. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to look at what has been going on in Magpie Heaven this week!