Framed Butterfly

Good Morning Friends,

I am excited to share this little project with you today.

It all started with this inspiration piece,  a small framed home decor item found in a thrift store in Florida.

My Mom brought me to this tiny shop full of all sorts of unique gifts and thrift items.   I took a photo of this framed butterfly and just knew I could recreate it myself.    My trip to Florida was in November 2011 and I have been sitting on this idea for some time.

The seed was planted, it just took 2 years for it to grow into this.

Step 1.  I used iScrapbook digital scrapbooking software for Macs to make a contact sheet of 8 images of the Butterfly Collage Stamp from the CS® Papillon Digital kit.  I printed it out on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of white cardstock using a toner ink printer.

Step 2. Using Perfect Pearls and a little water to create a paint, I added shimmery color to the butterflies with a paintbrush. I tested out some color combinations on plain copy paper first and then added the chosen colors or pink, purple and blue to five of the butterflies. On the very first image, I added green and pearl to the torn leaf paper and sheet music images. I also added a touch of bronze to the sheet music to give it some shadowing affects. This is the base image that the butterflies would be added to for the layered dimensional affect.

Step 3.  Fussy cut  4 of the butterflies out of the sheet.

Step 4.  I mounted the base image of the collage digi stamp and matted with CS® Memoirs green and CS® Papillon purple cardstocks. I inked the edges of all of the layers of cardstock with black india ink.   Used a black broad tipped brush marker to "ink" the edges of the butterflies.   The brush tip helps get into the tight spaces and covers the white edges to give them a cleaner look.

Step 5.  Had cut several frames from chip board and had a stack of about six .5 inch wide frames all ready to go.  Used CS® Bookbinding Glue to attach them all together.   Then glued them onto a thicker piece of matte board cut to the same dimensions 4.25 x 6.25 inches.    Once dried,  I painted the whole piece with Dick Blick Black Matte Paint and set aside to dry.

Step 6.  Once dry,  I attached the first matted collage image to the bottom of the shadow box frame with double sided ATG adhesive.

Step 7.  Use black foam dimensional squares to create the butterfly stack.

Step 8.   Using more of the same dimensional adhesive squares,  I attached the butterfly stack to the matted collage.

Step 9.  Enjoy the finished project. I am so happy with how it came out!

I really hope you enjoyed this little home decor project.

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie Heyer