Polymer Clay Brocade for Mystery Swap

Adrienne posted a Mystery Swap on ccswaps. I love a mystery, so I signed up. It was revealed to create Polymer Clay Brocade pieces for your partner. I have never played with polymer clay, so it still seemed to be a mystery to me after all was revealed, LOL. To see great instructions check out the post on Adrienne's blog.
I used black soft Fimo clay and "conditioned" it with my Cuttlebug, using increasingly thicker combo of plates to thin out the clay (I'm not sure what conditioned clay should look and feel like). I made the clay fairly thin, as I was creating embellishments that could be used on cards, etc. Also I wanted to experiment with using polymer clay in the Cuttlebug embossing folders. DISCLAIMER: Don't use the Cuttlebug other than what is suggested by the manufacture. Just because I'm foolish enough to experiment and risk breaking my beloved machine and plates, do not do so yourself. (You have been warned!) I used Lumiere metallic paints over the clay, doing three thin coats of paint on each piece with my finger, allowing the paint to dry between coats.

I coated a Cuttlebug embossing folder with cornstarch, hoping the clay wouldn't stick. I discovered using an A plate and two B plates along with the folder in the traditional way was too much pressure, see below:
For two of the other pieces, I coated the embossing folder with cornstarch and laid an embossing folder over the clay (the folder stayed open) and used the A plate and two B plates.

I used a variety of acrylic paints over these pieces and let them dry.
For the last piece, I pressed a rubber stamp into the painted clay.

Then used three paints over the piece working while these paints were still wet to blend the colors together.

After the paint dried, I cut out butterfly shapes with a cookie cutter. Then baked them in the over following the instructions on the clay package.

I choose these three to send to my partner. I was hoping to get a good photo out in the sun, but the light was too bright.

I also thought it was fun to make a card using one of the "Brocade" Butterflies and send it along with these butterflies to my swap partner. I used a piece of Double Saran & Watercolor Spray paper, it is the first one shown in this post. I ran it through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and colored the raised areas with blue Distress ink.

I sewed on the Brocade butterfly embellishment with gold cording and layered the background onto a black card. Added gold lacy ribbon, a vintage image and stamped some sayings with black StaZon ink onto thin vellum.