The Butterfly Project...

A few weeks ago I shared a pic of some butterfly punch-outs I had done from a Pottery Barn catalog (it was a really colorful picture of some towels all stacked together).  I had seen a picture that Ali Edwards made of butterflies all lined up and punched from many different colors of paper (which gave me some serious inspiration in the butterfly department).  I decided that I wanted to do something similar but with a different spin!

I started working on this little project Saturday afternoon.  I seem to have loads ideas that do not always turn out as I had envisioned them...  so I figured I had better test carefully to make sure this was going to work out!

In my day job I get a lot of really fine paper samples in the mail.  It's one of the things I look forward to the most!  I hoard them all (taking home the coolest papers for crafty reuse (I cannot just toss them you know!!)). 

Cougar paper had sent me sample called Ode to the Earth.  It is totally stunning and one I have been hanging on to for quite some time!

I knew this was just the project for it!

Picking the piece to use was the hardest part of this whole thing!  The rest was pretty easy!

For this project I used:
Colorful paper (you can use scraps from catalogs (the covers are best), scrapbook paper, paper samples, etc...
2 Martha Stewart butterfly punches (seen below)
Zots
3D-Dots (foam sticky squares)
Cardstock paper
Picture frame with 3D mat board

To get the most variety in the sizes of the butterflies...
I used two punches from Martha Stewart.
I got both of these at Michael's.

You need to cut the paper into strips to fit your punch...
this helps you to have more control over what you punch.
(I was going for the fish faces mostly).
The size of the strips depends on the size of the punch you are using.
These were 1 inch strips (roughly).

Once I had the strips cut - I kept them together so I would have a frame of reference as to how the page went together.  I wanted to try to mimic the picture and the color groupings as closely as I could.

As I was punching each butterfly I was laying them out on a white piece of paper so I could keep the like colors together.  I was alternating between the larger butterflies and the smaller ones as I was punching.

 
In order to give depth and dimension to the finished piece, I used a combination of zots and foam 3D-Dots (in the square shape).  I would stack them according to how much height I needed in a specific place.  I really just eyeballed this as I was going along.
oh and I left the original piece of paper with the butterflies all laid out as is... and got a new piece out to work directly on.  This helped to keep them separate so I could really see what I was doing.

I had to get crafty on the placement of the glue dots and 3D-dots because some of the wings were really small.  In some cases I actually cut the square 3D dots into 4ths (it can be done with a really sharp pair of scissors)...  and then I carefully placed the dot on the wings of the butterflies with a pair of tweezers.  I would also then use those same tweezers to place the butterflies on the paper...  this helped me to get exact placement in tight spots!

You can faintly see pencil marks in 4 spots on the paper.  I knew which picture frame I wanted to use for this project so I lightly marked the 4 corners so I would be sure not to go outside the area I had available.  I got pretty close to it!  I was having so much fun placing butterflies I just kinda got carried away!

Here is a side view of the finished piece...
The good thing about this paper is that it's bright and colorful.
The bad thing about this paper is that it does not photograph very well.  It's almost too bright!

Here is a head-on view.  I removed the glass from the picture frame so I could get a better picture, but I replaced it once I was done.

Here is a close-up view of the side of the other picture I made (this was my test picture).  I wanted you to be able to see the varying heights I placed the butterflies.

...and lastly...
A head-on view of the other picture.

http://www.lollychops.com