Butterfly Frenzy!!

So, I went a little butterfly crazy, maybe...anyway, thought you might enjoy seeing how I did the different elements of this collage. I used the Seven Gypsies 6 compartmente printer's tray, with GCD's Melody Ross paper as the background for the whole thing. I trim each rectangle to just shy of the actual dimensions and then use Zip Dry to secure the paper in each opening. If you use a 12 x 12 paper that has an overall picture, you will only lose a tiny bit on the edges, depending on where you start cutting from. Then I took another one of the papers from this Artsy Urban set, the huge butterfly with the red background border, and trimmed out the butterfly and the border, trimmed that to fit each rectangle, and used foam mounting tape to add dimension. I made some larger pictures of each section so you can get a closer look.

I have numbered these going from left to right, top to bottom


In section #1, the woman in the upper left corner is from more of the Artsy Urban paper, the butterfly is cut from 6 or 7 layers of an old book, using an Accu-Cut die, but any punch should work here. I added Distress inks, a button and some bling. The flower is a combo of Grungeboard , fabric and lace, cut using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die from Sizzix, with all the pieces layered and sewn together with one of Tim's buttons on the top. (He taught this in a class I saw at Buffalo Stamps & Stuff, in Buffalo a few weeks ago.-thanks Tim.)
In segment #2, same sort of butterfly, just a bit larger, Maya Road flower, and some Prima bling.
Section #3-Prima flower branch at the top, more Maya road flowers, and a card from the Artsy Urban set, mounted with foam tape on a deckle cut baqckground.
#4-The brads also from the Artsy Urban collection, I opened the brad a bit and hooked it over the frame of the section. The lower b'fly is the newspaper type, another Maya Rd flower. The big blue butterfly at the top left is mica (see "mica" note below) that I die cut in my Accu-cut machine...other die-cut machines should be fine...I colored by taking some Studio paint (Claudine Helmuth's acrylic paint from Ranger) and diluting it a lot, added it to the edges and heated really well with a heat tool (Mica gets very hot...do NOT hold it while you do this-lay it on a craft sheet-also from Ranger) You can divide the mica into layers, add the color on top of and in between the layers, and dry. I also added a bit of stickles to the wing edges.
#5-There is a bottle there that is glued in place.
#6-The butterflies are die-cut mica again, ,...the larger one is covered in Rock Candy Distress Stickles (Ranger), and there is a smaller one attached to it that was done the same way I described in #4.
All attaching was done with Zip Dry.
Here are some close-ups of some of the elements...

We just got in these cool cut & emboss sets from Provo Craft, so I used the die to cut the butterfly, then placed it in the embossing folder and created that little guy that I added to the whole thing, but he didn't make it into the top picture...kind of an afterthought...like, hmmm, that's a butterfly...have to add it.

More close ups...

Mica Note:

I love working with mica. When you purchase it, it is usually very thick. You can slip your craft knife in between the layers, go all the way around the whole piece, and create multiple thinner pieces. You can stamp on Mica with Stazon ink, or other permanent inks, emboss on it, add bling, glue on ribbon, punch holes, use as a book cover, etc. We do sell it here and we can show you how to do this.

At our last Not-Your-Ordinary-Book-Club meeting, we did transfers on canvas...we all agreed that it was a great technique. Here are a few of the results...and, of course, since it is on canvas, you can use it in sewing, as well as other altered art projects...and, yes, since you asked, that is come pretty fancy scrapbook paper that we used for the transfers...

We put the paper, any scrapbook paper, (or anything that is NOT an inkjet copy...and if there are words, be sure you do a mirror image copy) face down onto the sticky side of the Claudine Helmuth Sticky-backed canvas, made by Ranger. Burnish well. Dip into water, and keeping it wet, "pill" off the paper with circular motions of your fingers---very important--keep the paper wet. Dry with your heat tool. When you do this, you will see some of the white paper particles show up quite boldly...if there is really a lot, re-wet and pill more of the paper off. Otherwise, cover the dried picture completely with a thin coat of Multi medium-the matte style...also from Ranger's Clauding helmuth line. This can also be dried with the heat tool...takes seconds. And you are done...really! Try this and let me know how it worked for you.

I had a great trip to Buffalo last weekend, to visit my friend, Sharon, at her store, Buffalo Stamps and Stuff, and to help out with her "Tim Holtz weekend."
It was great fun...her store is wonderful, and well worth a stop if you are in the Niagra Falls area. We did go to the falls with Tim & Mario...found the candy store there, and Tim became the proverbial "kid-in-a-candy-store," right before our eyes. Apparently, he is a connoisseur!

It was wonderful of Sharon to have fireworks go off at 10 pm in his honor. too. We got pretty soaked in the "light mist" but we were all quite happy at nature's display. I did get to take the pandemonium quilt class, and it was the last time it will ever be taught. My sample is here in the store and we will create a class in a smaller format to let you all give this a try. It was lots of fun, and filled with techniques using Grungeboard.
We have already ordered the Graphic 45 Halloween set--it is in the theme of "Halloween in Wonderland"...alice and all that. It should be here at the beginning of July as we were one of the first to get our orders in.