focus | butterflies

What to do today? I looked at the schedule, and spotting the darling www.shimelle.com as today’s sponsor decided to take inspiration directly from her. Today, I focus on butterflies. First, here are some of my favorite butterfly products:

I find punches and stamps to be my most used – love the added layer and detail. Lately I’m really into the new Martha Stewart Stitched Collection – and it is full of great summer colors and butterflies too. In fact, here is a layout that I created with that line (and my tiny Jenni Bowlin butterfly punch pictured above)

I can’t even begin to tell you how much FUN this layout was to make. I love how the butterflies make such great finishing touches.

Supplies used on above layout:

 Here are my  5 favorite ways/reasons to use butterflies:

1. In conjunction with buttons and other retro accents
2. Because I am scrapbooking my beautiful little girls and they love butterflies
3. On thank-you cards
4. With flowers and/or leaves
5. On spring themed projects

Of course, you don’t really need a reason! Like flowers, buttons, or stars you can just kind of incorporate sweet little butterflies into just about any project. From babies to weddings, parties to summer, and anything in between they are such a happy lovely thing to add. If your project is about flying, soaring, starting over, and other symbolic things you can use them easily there too!

Think butterflies aren’t grungy enough for you? I beg to differ! You can mix it up with all kinds of paints, inks, and other mediums especially if working with stamps. You can make a distressed aged rusty butterfly if you really want. I figure, if Tim Holtz can release butterfly stamps and dies, it’s well and truly an image that anyone can make use of.

Or you can do like I did, and fully embrace the girliest of pinks…

Here is a tag in progress. I’m using an old Tattered Angels stencil on a tag that i painted pink.

Supplies:

I’ve covered it with molding paste for texture, and while the stencil is still down I misted with dylusions ink spray in pink. Note the blue and green specks of color around the butterfly? That is because I had a dirty stencil (and I did so intentionally).

Once dry, I felt like the pink was too vivid so I dabbed white acrylic paint lightly over it to tone things down. I love the look I have now –

I am not going to further embellish it, as I intend to use it as a birthday package tag. OOH! Birthdays. There is another great place to utilize a butterfly accent.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at butterflies in my crafting, and I hope you’re inspired to focus on something and craft inspired by that (whether it is butterflies or something else entirely) this weekend.

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today’s post is sponsored by www.shimelle.com

Shimelle Laine absolutely, positively adores scrapbooking.  And she shares that with her readers at her blog, www.shimelle.com, where you’ll find ideas, tutorials, videos and challenges to join.  She grew up in Kansas but swapped the countryside for city life and lives in London, England – a place she loves almost as much as she loves scrapbooking. Get the full experience for signing up for one of Shimelle’s classes.  You can pick from all sorts of topics, like getting the most from your supplies, improving your journaling, getting your albums in order or making a special project like a Christmas journal.

You can sign up for any class at any time and they all include permanent access to the materials and a friendly, helpful community of scrapping classmates. Cover to Cover, a class all about creating an album system that works for you and your pages is now available in a self-paced format. True Stories, a class all about rejuvenating your scrapbook journaling, is also available to take any time.

And around the web, you can find Shimelle at Twitter, Facebook, pinterest, youtube, and username ‘shimelle’ on Instagram