Dragonflies

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One of my new methods is to prepare a bunch of design elements in advance, that I can use in various ways as I assemble product - notepads, pins, gift tags, tins, etc. And one of my favorite techniques is to stack & glue shapes together to make them more dimensional. I love to stack colored paper on top of black layers - really gives it a nice edge. And when I stack metallic papers together, people think it's real metal.

My latest in-advance element is these dragonflies. I punched 100 then decided they looked better if the body was 2 black layers deep, then add the colorful wings on top. So now I'll punch 100 more to make 50 more - my goal is to make things in batches of 100. (I remember the days when 10 seemed like a lot.)

The bottom wings are punched from one of Bazzill's "bling" papers. I bought a couple of colors in that style but I haven't been wild about it. For one, it doesn't score or fold nicely - it gets crackly. I've ended up using the back of the bling paper because I like the colors, but guess I'm just not a bling kind of girl. But for the dragonfly application, it's perfect!

Here's a hint if you want to try stacking shapes - apply the glue, then line them up by feel. It's much easier than trying to place the shapes perfectly. I mean that tail is, I just measured, a tiny bit less than 1/16 of an inch. No way could I line that up visually.

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