Saturday, July 5, 2014

Simply Firefly

One of my favorite things about summer is the beautiful fireworks each evening, in the form of lightning bugs. They are much quieter than the human version of fireworks! I decided to get a little artsy and make this firefly shaker card:

The shaker is made from the plastic safety cover off of a Fiskars paper-trimmer blade...so glad I kept one! It has a little bump in the middle, but I felt like that gave the "body" some dimension. I filled it with a chunky glow-in-the-dark glitter (Martha Stewart brand). A lightning bug got into the house the other day and I wanted to recreate the surprise of its glow in a dark room. I couldn't get a good photo of it in the dark, but it does glow!

The wings and antenna were cut on my BigShot with a Memory Box die. The top wings, antenna, and body background are a shiny black paper (Recollections), and the bottom wings are vellum.The bases were cut with a Spellbinders die (included the base card; I cut it from a folded piece of paper.) The top is a shiny green (Recollections again), and it's glued  onto a black piece that I embossed with the die, cut out, and decorated with Holographic embossing powder (Sweet Stamps). I added some red Stickles as a border, reminiscent of a firefly's coloring.

The sentiment stamp is from the Let It Shine set by Verve Stamps. I heat-embossed it with a glittery white, and added a sprinkle of the white and holographic glitters to the card. That was supposed to look "whimsical" but I'm afraid it just looks messy!

I'm always inspired by our garden, and I'm glad I finally got around to making an homage to these real-life fairies of summer.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cut it Up #48: Twilight
Just Add Ink #221: Just Add Shakers
Simon Says Stamp: Shake It
Tando Creative Challenges: Come Fly with Me

Thank you for visiting,


12 comments:

  1. Oh wow this is so creative. Yes fire flies are one of nature's delights. We use to see big swarms of them when I was a child but dont see them anymore in South Africa.
    Hugs Desíre {Doing Life}

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  2. CG - This is so cool - I love how you made the body a little shaker!

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  3. Super cute & cool!
    Thank you for joining us at Cut It Up Challenges.
    Have a wonderful day,
    Migdalia
    *Crafting With Creative M*

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  4. What a cool, creative idea! This is so cute, and amazing that she actually glows in the dark! Brilliant! (pardon the pun . . .)

    Thanks for entering our Twilight challenge at Cut it Up!

    Evelyn
    http://mylittlecraftblog.wordpress.com

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  5. What great recycling of the blade cover. It make a perfect tiny shaker for your firefly. Love the sparkly scallops too. Thanks for joining us at Just Add Ink this week.

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  6. AnonymousJuly 07, 2014

    Wow this is so inventive. I like how you have used the blade cover to create this shakers. It great how your firefly pops out. Chantell JAI

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  7. Oh, how fun! I love that you used glow in the dark glitter! Thanks so much for playing along with the Shake It! Challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

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  8. What a creative idea! Love your pretty firefly. Thanks for playing along at Just Add Ink this week, Louise xo

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  9. How very clever of you CG, love that you've upcycled on this project, it's the perfect vessel for your shaker butterfly and a lovely sentiment too! Thanks for joining us at Just Add Ink.

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  10. Love your sweet lightning bug, it is perfect for twilight! Thank you for joining us at CIU!

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  11. Very pretty! Thanks for joining us on the Tando challenge this month.

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