FancyCrafty{Me}

Good morning everyone!  I'm sure that everyone is about ready for Spring so I'm here with a butterfly mobile because nothing says Spring more than seeing butterflies fluttering everywhere.

First I cut out a bunch of butterflies.  I cut at least 3 of each butterfly of the same pattern and color.   I cut 4 of some but I ended up only using 3 of each.  Pretty, aren't they?

I first scored each butterfly down the center and folded them in half.  I then glued 3 of each of the same butterflies together  putting them back halves together leaving one side open.  Here's 2 of them below so you can see how they look.  You could put 4 of them together but I felt that 3 were plenty.

The reason I left one side open was so that I could put the fishing line into the center of the butterfly before gluing it closed.  I beaded some large beads at the bottom of each fishing line strand to weigh the butterflies down and put some decorative beads in between the butterflies.   I ended up with 6 strands but you can do as many as you like.  I added glitter glue to some of the butterflies just for some sparkle.   I also felt like the basis paper that I had was beautiful but not quite as thick as the metallic/mica paper and the glitter glue made it more sturdy.  I am sending this mobile cross-country so I want it to hold up well during shipment.  Don't worry, I am going to wrap these butterflies very carefully and box them up so they don't get squashed.... at least I sure hope they don't get squashed!

I wrapped a large metal ring with ribbon (lots of glue on the back of it) and hung it with 3 strands of ribbon tied to a center small key ring.  I tied each strand of the mobile to the ring and viola', a butterfly mobile!

Here's a close up of the top half of the mobile.  It looks much better in person!  I didn't really have any rhyme nor reason to what order I put the butterflies or beads, I just had fun making it at random.

 

If I make another one (and my husband says I need to make one for him!) I may choose to have more of a design to it.  The little girl I'm sending it to won't even care if there are two yellow butterflies together (like in the back shown below)... she will be thrilled to receive it and so will her mom!

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!  If you have any questions feel free to contact me.  I hope this project will inspire you to enjoy the little things in life just as my daughter and I have always enjoyed looking for butterflies.  Enjoy your weekend!

Paper Temptress Paper:
Mica/Metallic: Azalea, Amethyst, Lagoon
Glimmer: Autumn Hay
Astrobright: Plasma Pink, Lunar Blue, Gamma Green

Dies by: Spellbinders, Memory Box, Poppy Stamps

I am making a butterfly mobile for a precious special needs little girl.  She loves bright colors and butterflies so I've been making them like crazy!  These are a fair amount of work so it's taking me more time than I originally wanted to take but I'm sure she will love it when I finally get finished with it.

I will post another day when I actually have the mobile done but for now, enjoy these butterflies!

I used black Onyz for the outline of the butterflies.  I explain that process below.  As you can see in these photos, I shaped the butterflies so that they would be 3-dimensional.  Once they're hanging from the mobile they should look like they are flying.

I ran the butterfly dies through my Big Shot using the Onyz paper  and all the little pieces came out as you can see on the right side of the photo.  I used Heavenly White paper for the background of the butterfly and colored it using copics.  I placed the black outline on top of the white paper and colored in the individual sections.  I then took the black outline off and expanded the coloring a bit so that if I didn't glue the outline exactly where I originally had it, it would still look ok.

When gluing the black outline on top of the colored butterfly cut-out, it's important to shape the card as you glue the together.  If you wait until the glue dries then the paper won't bend right.  The Onyz paper  is a nice, thick and sturdy paper.  When you glue it to the other paper it holds that shape nicely.  I colored both sides of the white butterfly paper so that it is colorful from any angle.  So... I cut out another black outline and glued it to the back.  The front of this butterfly is below.

  

Here is another butterfly using pink, blue and purple copics.  The thick outline of this set made it much easier to glue than the thin outline above - but I like the look of both.

This is the back of this butterfly with it face-down.  You can see how I colored this side and added the 2nd black outline.  You can also see that it's shaped and not flat.

Here it is right-side up.

This is one of my favorite butterflies.  I enjoyed coloring different colors in the outer circle cut-outs on the wings.

Below are the smallest and largest butterflies.  The smallest one is about 1 1/2" wide and the large one is about 3 1/2" wide.  They would be a bit wider if they weren't bent and shaped.  The orange area of the large butterfly has two shades of orange.  I thought it made a dramatic effect if I feathered the darker color on top of the light.

I plan to put pearls or other "bling" onto the butterfly bodies after I get them hanging on the mobile.  I'll be sure to glue them on good so they don't fall off!

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful & creative weekend!