Creating Butterfly and Dragonfly Embellishments

I just have to share this with you... My blog friend Sandy from Details With Sandy created these BEAUTIFUL butterflies and dragonflies and of course my eyes went tilt. You know I needed them so I filed the idea in the back of my head for when I had the opportunity to purchase transparancies...

Sunday hubby and I stopped at some overstock store they opened up in town and they had heavy duty plastic or clear vinyl 8 1/2x14 inch sheet protectors, a whole box for only $4 and the first thing I thought of was Sandy's butterflies! So I bought them and went to Sandy's blog! All I could find was photos of them (I couldn't remember when she ran the tutorial), so I proceeded to try to figure this out on my own. I could spend hours on her blog.... she is such a talented lady so if you have the time..... go visit her, her creations are just amazing.

First I cut the holes off and trimed away all the edges so it would fit on my cricut. Made a few different butterflies and dragonflies on my Gypsy Woman and cut. I set my Cricut on 6, pressure 4 and slow speed and it cut like butter.... soooo smooth. I pulled them off the mat and what a mess trying to get clear pieces off the mat when your tired and the eyes just don't see as well late at night as they do earlier in the day...

I then started outlining with my Sharpie...

I picked the first 6 bottles of paint out of my craft box in the garage as I figured this was an experiment anyway.... and proceded to paint the backs of each one.

I waited for them to dry and started decorating..... I then ran into trouble. When my stickles dried I bent the wings of my first butterfly and the stickles popped off! I was devasted because I JUST LOVE THE WAY THEY LOOK!

I shot an email to Sandy, forgeting she has been sick and then emailed my friend Pam at TheBugBytes.com for her advise as she paints. She advised me to coat the material in soap  like a shampoo first and then after it dries to then paint and stickle or use an acrylic paint as acrylic sticks to acrylic, or even a diamond glaze can be used.  (NOTE: I put nothing on mine... changing to a light coat rather than a heavy coat of stickles solved my problem).

She said Sandy's sucess lies in that the transparancy has a sticky side that is easy to adhere too.... Remember I didn't use the transparency and am not known for having any patience so know I kept experimenting and discovered that it works!!! YEAH! The success is using a very light coat of skittles as seen below...

I also found that the silver and gold looks like you have a lot more on than you do, so I started using a little more of them. I am still working on these as the first page netted 18 butterflies and 8 dragonflies!!! I can't wait to use these embelishments on my layouts..... And I haven't done this yet but can't you just see a little caterpillar in grass made with this material? I already have a brown Sharpie just ready to start working!

I hope you enjoyed learning about my little butterfiles and dragonflies and you too start looking at the material all around you that can be made into wonderful embellishments for your craft projects..... be sure to share them with me!

Sandy and Pam, I can't thank you enough for how you stretch me... you are two very talented ladies and I value your friendships!  Sandy so graciously contacted me and felt that the best thing to use for the project is the transparancy so that is what I will use in the future.... and just think you can make these without a cricut just by running them through your printer or copy machine and cutting them out with a scissors.

Oh my little bargain will not go to waste as I will use that for windows in cookie boxes, pillow boxes etc. You can be sure you will see this material used again! Besides, I have 26 new embellies to use on my pages! How exciting is that!

Thats it for todays project. Thanks for your comments, I enjoy hearing from you and I am encouraged by your words.