Before you watch this, just know that we were laughing so hard that we could barely talk. On the segment right before mine the guest told Darin (the short red haired male host) that he looked like a Leprechaun. It got us giggling uncontrollably. The only way we could get through the segment was to not look at each other. Having said that, before I get started I feel the need to be completely honest.  Here it goes . . . I HATE butterflies.  I mean really hate them.  Not real ones mind you.  I love running through the fields on a warm spring day; barefoot with beautiful serene butterflies landing gently on my shoulder and fluttering nature’s whispers in my ear (okay I might be getting carried away here).  Real butterflies are beautiful, but as far as getting caught up in the butterfly trend . . . not so much.  However, this was my challenge this month.  One of my favorite parts about working with Studio 5 is getting challenged to attempt  something that I normally wouldn’t do.  People ask me all of the time if I get to pick what I want to show.  The answer is yes.  I could if I wanted.  However, I think it’s more fun to be surprised with whatever they throw at me.   I always say that I am much better coming up with ideas than I actually am at creating them.  So with that said, I was hoping this segment would turn my passions around.  Unfortunately, guess what?  I still HATE butterflies lol (okay it might have turned me around a bit) and  luckily my mother loves them and I love her so hopefully she will enjoy some of the things that I made.  I hope that my distain for the flying beasts didn’t skew my ability to come up with a few unique ideas.  Take a look and hopefully something will inspire you.

This ended up being my favorite project.  And if I liked butterflies I would probably actually use it lol.  I actually added some jeweled stick pins after I took this photo that made me like it even more.  I simply ironed the butterflies onto some thin canvas type fabric then I cut around them leaving a bit of an edge and then I frayed the edges.  I used a little bit of hot glue to attach the center of the butterfly onto a larger piece of fabric (cut to fit in the frame 14X16). Then I ironed on the numbers TIP: I would iron on the numbers first.  It was kind of difficult to do it after I had already attached the butterflies. To get the butterfly images and the numbers simply click on the download button below.  Make sure you print it out in the “flip image” mode for iron-ons.

Okay, this one isn’t all that unique, but I wanted to add a twist to the typical flower embellishments that you see on sweaters these days.  I simply cut out a bunch of butterflies and lightly adhered the centers to the sweater with fabric glue and then attached the pearls.  Make sure you use fabric that doesn’t fray or some kind of fray-check product on the edges.  It is also best to hand wash.
Shadow boxes are HOT HOT HOT right now.  My favorite ones are from 7 Gypsies.  They happen to be one of my favorite companies. However, they can be pricey.  This is kind of a quick inexpensive alternative.  It is made from a set of boxes found at the dollar store.  I actually purchased two different sets and then mixed and matched.  The cool thing is that it is kind of like a two-for-one because you can use the tops for one box and the bottoms for a second shadow box.  I simply glued it together with hot glue (Imaginisce’s cordless glue gun of course!!!) Then I sprayed it with off-white spray paint and embellished it with patterned paper (restoration collection by Crate Paper).  I attached a drawer pull/handle to the top and added some ribbon and bling.  I absolutely LOVE the quote that I added to the inside.

This project isn’t all that impressive. However, the technique is actually pretty cool. I used a butterfly paper punch to punch out some butterfly shapes out of . . . an empty pop can (a full one would have made a mess lol). I simply cut the pop can open and laid it flat and then punched out as many shapes as I could. It took a little bit of muscle power, but it totally worked!!! Then I painted and layered them and glued them to the outside of a glass candle holder. Pretty sweet technique.