Thursday, April 3, 2008

60+ Butterflies (printed on vellum & cardstock + templates & project links)

Am I a crafter dreaming
I'm a butterfly or am I a
butterfly dreaming I'm a crafter?

A vellum butterfly on the outside of a candle holder
with a space to insert stamped images or photos

This candle holder was an amazingly delightful bday gift from the marvelous Kim. (It's made by Partylite--in case you'd like to find one.) To make the flowered insert, I just stamped on Vellum cardstock with the Fancy Pants stamp (their From the Garden set.) It's Black Craft ink embossed with clear embossing powder. The blossoms are painted with River Rock ink.

Some more vellum butterflies:

These were so easy to make. I wanted a little bit of spring indoors,
so I gathered up the lilac trimmings and their buds opened. :0)


Butterflies printed on Naturals white cardstock:

They are surprisingly vibrant.

The link to these Smithsonian
butterflies and moths is here (personal use only)
they are also lovely printed out on printable acetate.

Here is one that I scribbled over with a Sakura glaze pen (clear)
to give it sheen and to brighten the colours:

The glaze pen made the paper raise a little so that it has a convex shape. When I cut it out that made it shape nicely. It also looks like it has the real shine of a silky butterfly. Too much fun!


Here's what they look like printed on Vellum cardstock:

The vellum makes them look subtly coloured. It was surprisingly easy to cut.


Another great graphics link thanks to the lovely Carol.
You won't want to miss her pop-up butterfly card.
It's extremely cool.


Martha Stewart et al:

1) rice paper petits fours & template
2) Butterfly projects & template
3) Butterfly patch shirt & template
4) Template from Martha Stewart & the slippers it makes
5) Butterfly on a glass & template
6) Sachet & template
7) Butterflies from pressed leaves
8) Beaded butterflies & made with pretzels to put on cupcakes (only Martha-lol!)



Some gorgeous butterfly project samples:

1) Stunning Butterfly Exhibit Project (found thanks to Allison)
2) Gorgeous Butterful bag by Lisa Dorsey (3 pics down)
3) Beautiful Butterfly Card
4) Beautiful card by Jen with Martha butterfly punch
5) Stunning Butterfly card by Kim made from new coredinations cardstock
6) Just plain pretty butterfly drawing
7) Miss CutiePie's Butterflies

The Bodo Sperlein Niagara Chandelier ($45,000)

with porcelain butterflies lit up by fiber optics.

Moths:

1) Skeleton Leaf moths (lovely!)

Butterfly templates/outlines:
(great for printing/tracing/nutting out or glue pen embossing)

1) Maria's gorgeous butterflies (in different sizes!)
2) My fave (reminds me of a t-shirt my Mom embroidered for me when I was a kid)
3) Butterfly Card Mirkwood template
4) template that's great for scrapbooking from here
5) Butterfly template from here
6) Monarch Painted Lady
7) Butterfly
8) Butterfly Mobile
9) Butterfly pattern
10) Monarch
11) Butterfly
12) Another flutterby

MORE lovely flutterby-ness:

1) funky projects
2) more butterfly coloring pages
3) butterfly
4) Alabama State insect
5) Outlines from how to draw a butterfly
6) Window butterflies
7) Butterfly colouring pages

To print & watercolour?:

1) Lovely detailed sketch 1 and sketch 2 from here
2) A good one to print & watercolour from here

For kids (Big or little):

1) Finger puppet
2) With hands <--this is heeheehee cute
3) Candy Butterfly
4) Cute how to draw a butterfly

Another look for the candle with a butterfly pattern
that I've re-sized for paper conservation.
It's here on SCS: Butterfly template (It has lots of sizes.)


I used the USA Declaration of Independence printed out on cardstock to make the large butterfly on the candle holder above; it felt strange to cut it up but I hope my American readers will think of it as a form of tribute. :0)

Butterfly card & more links:

Happy Craftin' and may none of you get this lousy flu bug! :0)


ETA: Check out this acetate & art glitter butterfly by Lauren
(she's amazing!)

12 comments:

April said...

Mel - you are SO awesome! This post came at the perfect time, I needed to find a unique technique to use on a layout and the butterflies are beyond perfect!! Thank you SO much!! You rock!

Carol P said...

Very, very beautiful. I'm off to check out those sites!

I found some other printable butterflies here:

Wikimedia butterflies

that I used for pop up cards.

Carol
Extreme Cards and Papercrafting

Anonymous said...

SO PRETTY!! WOW! I think I can do this... print that is :D Great, great, idea!! TFS

Margaret McDonald said...

hope u r feeling better soon. love Auntie

valita said...

mel ive been so inspired by your talents ive awarded you...go to my blog and read more...luv valita
http://valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com/

Michelle Pearson said...

oh my...those are so cool....but then I'm very much liking flutterbys lately! ;) You might not be feeling well...but your art is wonderful!

CreativeMish said...

WOW! I love the butterflies on the twigs.

Corie said...

WOW -- so amazing!!!

eddy said...

I went Googling for a butterfly template and found your article, just the second one I tried and what a goldmine! Thanks for all the links! I thumbed it on StumbleUpon and was surprised it was a "Discovery" for me! Great blog!

Shassa said...

WoW Mel

What a great blog to fall over. I've been feeling yuk myself for a while and looking at your lovely creations has cheered me up loads. I can't draw so I shall be doing lots of coloring now. Thank you loads people who like Butterflies have kind souls. Hope you feel better soon.

Clear Cards said...

Awesome butterfly cardstock. These are really nice templates and main thing which i like the most the way you use the butterfly for this templates.

Sharon said...

Hello Mel,

I do hope you feel well soon. I'm looking forward to clicking on the links.

Sharon :-)