Happy Tuesday lovely readers! The sun is shining in my part of the world, the first time in a long time, my horrible cold is subsiding and all my spring bulbs are poking their little heads of the sodden earth to say hello. Lovely. Why not bring a bit of spring inside with some delicate paper butterflies? Good day for crafting I say.
You may remember my little bedroom spruce up, and how I was still lacking 'something'. Well - I had a random Ikea ribba frame (don't we all?!) which I thought would look good in our white and neutral bedroom with the help from some aged book pages and a little help.
Here's how it all went down...
With a piece of cardboard to fit your chosen frame, use a compass and pencil to outline some circles where you would like the butterflies to 'flutter'. I did random bits of circles, smaller in the centre and getting bigger so my butterflies would seemingly fly outward. Well that was my plan anyway!
I got an old book from the op shop, I couldn't bear ripping out pages of one of my books, plus this book cost me 20 cents! You will need to be armed with a butterfly craft punch also, remember when I got all punch drunk and happy with my punches?
Now punch away! You should end up with lots of little butterflies cut out from your books pages. Try and make the positioning of the butterfly punch quite random so the text is not running all the one way.
Fold the butterfly wings upwards to make them three dimensional. I stuck my butterflies down gently with a regular glue stick, running the body of the butterfly along the glue stick whilst it's standing up rather than trying to be fiddly and use the glue stick as a pen to put the glue on. Make sense? ;)
Position your butterflies as you wish, like I said I tried to do a bit of an outward spiral but found that I actually didn't need that many butterflies otherwise it became too crowded and you couldn't really see the spiral shape.
When you're done carefully use an eraser to rub out the pencil marks and pop the cardboard in your frame. Voila! Paper butterflies fluttering next to my bed.
(The photo framed on the other wall is by Tracy Edgar and in a recycled timber frame which was in the cottage when we moved in - love it!)
8 comments:
Hi Emma, came via your link on my FB Page. Thank you so much for the lovely mention - curious to know - where did you buy the print?
You blog is lovely. Consider me your newest follower.
cheers
Tracy :)
Just a little comment from an inquisitive sister: remember when we were little and traipsing after Mum in Spotlight, me quite bored and you with an armful of stencils, frames, longstitch patterns and paint?
Crafty Emma from a young age! xxx
Love what you've done Emma!! Such a cute idea x
That looks gorgeous Emma.. fabulous idea to use the old book pages! I won some beautiful butterflies in a giveaway and now I know exactly what to do with them, thanks!
Flick x
The butterflys look really effective on the wall and my type of easy to make! Good job
Love what you have done with the butterflies.
You might want to enter it in this competition http://blossie.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/butterfly-collage-challenge-.html
Emma,this is a beautiful tutorial!
I am very grateful you shared it. I am waiting for some new punch and I wonder what I should do with them. Now I am inspired. Greetings :) -Barbara
Thanks for this fabulous tutorial, Emma. You have inspired me. I just might have to make one for Planet Baby. J x
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