Weekend Creative : March #1 : Butterfly Mobile

Yep, more butterflies.

The prompt this weekend is to make a spring mobile. Something to brighten things up a bit + celebrate the coming season.

This is a great project for using what you have. Gather up some of those random pieces of this and that and plan a little creative time (you can always check out the supply list below for specifics). The idea here is to play and experiment with each of the butterflies as your canvas.

Another cool part of this project is that it can easily be done in bits and pieces. Paint all the butterflies. Go do laundry. Come back and add some accents to a few. Run around outside with your kids. Come back again and do some handwriting. etc. Or settle in for the long haul.

To attach each butterfly to the branch I punched a hole and wrapped a piece of ribbon through. Rather than creating a loop, I stitched the ribbon together to hold it in place + cut the ribbon (you will be able to see this in the photos below). To attach it to the branch I tied a knot at the top.

Supply Basics:
• Jenni Bowlin Butterfly Chipboard (4 to a package : could imagine using these birds too)
• Making Memories Paint (banana + buttercup)
• Crackle Paint: Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Mustard Seed) - one of the coolest things about this product, besides how it cracks
the paint with no work on your part, is that the brush comes inside the
lid (you can see Tim using it here)
• Ribbon: Amercican Crafts Halstead 87558 (green stitched), yellow rik rak, super cute green dot/puff ribbon from the October Cocoa Daisy kit
• A way to punch holes in the chipboard butterflies - I like the Crop-A-Dile or the hammer set from Making Memories
• Black Staz-On Ink
• A branch or something on which to hang the butterflies

Here's a look at each individual butterfly (both sides) with additional supplies listed below each photo:

Number One:

K&Company Paper Flower Brads + K&Company Blue Awning Adhesive Gems

Here's what the crackle paint looks like after it dries. You just paint it right on (using the brush in the bottle) and then as it dries it cracks. Cool stuff. I attached the flower brads with a glue dot rather than using the metal feet (just fold them back and place the glue dot on top).

Number Two:

Letter stamps (from a Japanese company) that you can often find here. American Crafts Precision Pen (my favorites). The dots were created using a cool rolling stamp from Stampin Up (Looks like it's called Stampin Around ).

Felt letter "e" from American Crafts. Circle stamps from Savvy Stamps (581D Outline Circle) and the word one is part of an Everyday Life kit offered through the CK Kit Of The Month back in May of last year.

Number Three:

Green circles were created using the Heidi Swapp Dot Mask and an Adirondack Paint Dabber. Colored pencils are from Prismacolor.

Slick Writers are another staple in my supplies. I used a ruler here to get the lines down.

Number Four:

Bet you may just have some buttons in your collection of stuff. If not, here's some.

Words from 7gypsies 97% Complete Document sticker sheet.

Number Five:

American Crafts Felt Flowers + Mini Yellow Brads (again, I used the brads for decoration rather than function)

Basic Grey Rub Ons.

Number Six:

KI Lace Cardstock (Flower Child White) + K&Company decorative brad. This is the same technique as a couple week's back - see the prompt here.

Hero Arts Design Block Tree Stamp + Embossing Ink (Versamark) + UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)

Number Seven:

The random flower wire here came from a wonderful little crafty Easter kit from Flea Market Studio. She has some great little ephemera kits. Word sticker is from a Making Memories Wordfetti package.

Stickles: Frosted Lace (basically just rubbed it right onto the butterfly with my finger)    

The tough part seemed to be figuring out where to put the darn thing.

While I was working on it I hung it in between my closet doors:

When it was done I tried it on the ceiling in my office (using ribbon from Paper Source):

And then decided to hang it above the window in the bathroom:

For more visual inspiration to get you going check out this Mobile Swap Flickr group (based on the swap started by Elsie Marley). I also found a couple mobiles on etsy that I loved: check out this one + this one. And I love this one from Sally Shim that could easily become the inspiration for an Easter mobile (thinking ovals).