Nailed It - Butterfly Shadow Box

I had intended to include two crafts in this post. Partly because I felt bad that I hadn't posted yesterday and partly because the first one was just so quick and easy. However, after writing about the first one, I decided that my 'verbal diarrhea' had gotten the best of me, and figured I would leave it at just the one. 

So, without further ado - Butterfly Shadow Box.

This is something I had seen quite some time ago on Pinterest - thought it looked simple enough (which was important as this was just as I was discovering my 'inner Martha Stewart'). I saw this:

                                                        (credit - Ali Edwards)

and after reading how she got inspired to do this and how simple it was, I figured, what the hey, I could so totally do this and that it would make for cute artwork in Little P's room.

So off to Michaels I went, with my trusty printout of said craft, and proceeded to locate a butterfly punch and some scrap book paper. It was then, that I realized just how expensive some of the scrap booking stuff is - it's crazy. And then I did a mental calculation of some of the items friends of mine have and I'm thinking 'Holy crap - they spent that much?!' Anyway, armed with a coupon for 40% off, I buy my punch and some funky paper (none of this girly stuff for me) and head on home (I already had a shadow box on hand from a previous debacle of a craft - which I may or may not tell you about one day).

While Little P was sleeping, I punched out the butterflies from my scrap paper, and then I read further down on the tutorial and realized that she used pages out of magazines. Brilliant! Thought I, and headed off to get my rather large collection of magazines that I just happen to have lying around the house (in hindsight, I could have saved myself some $ and just used the magazines, but oh well).

Once I had enough punched out, I chose the background paper (I didn't want to do plain white) and started to lay out the butterflies. This bit took the longest, as I moved them around to get the positioning that I liked. Then it was time to glue them. I folded them in half, so they were somewhat raised from the paper, and with a glob of glue on a plate, I slid the folded edge in the glue and then gently placed them on the background.

I then left them to dry overnight - I wanted to make sure that they adhered to the paper properly before closing the frame and putting it on display. Once it was all done, this is what I had:

The picture doesn't really do it justice (yes, I know M, we have a perfectly good camera and mini photo studio to take pictures of these things. What can I say? I'm an 'instant gratification' kind of gal. I promise, for the next one, I will use these). But I like it, and I kind of love how it looks like a butterfly display case. I was a little concerned that I should have used a larger shadow box (this is an 8 x 10) but I don't think a larger one would have worked in Little P's room.

It's now one of my favorite pieces in her room.

If I was to do it again (and I am seriously thinking of doing one for Fall, with pumpkins), I would change a couple of things:

1) I would use a larger frame, as it would be on display in the house, not in a room, and I 
    really think a 10 x 12 would be better suited.
2) Use a white shadow box. I think it provides a 'cleaner' look. If I had of had white spray 
    paint on hand, I probably would have painted it.
3) I would use nothing but punch outs of magazine pages. The one's with text on them are 
    my favorites.
4) Use sticky dots instead of glue. Would give more of a 3D look I think.

So, what says you oh wonderful readers? Did I 'nail it'?

Till next time....keep on punching.

K

Mommy-ism #72: There is something to be said for having your little one covered in paint (and glitter, and googly eyes….). While your first thought might be ‘Oh lord, how am I going to get this all off of you’, the moment you see just how delighted your little one is playing with all of it and making their ‘art’, you almost want to get down in there with them. Almost.