Very Simple

    Hi everyone,

    I am back with another butterfly creation for Nicecrane designs... 

    I was a bit stuck when I made this - one of those horrible mojo-less times and I was really struggling. Then I remembered what Claudia said to me once when I was sure that I would lack motivation for ever - her advice was to just go play, don't try out new things, don't think, just have a play with tried and tested and much loved styles. 

     So I decided to sit and play with neutral colours, totally shabby chic but simplifying things by not trying anything new. 

I had been wanting to use one of the butterflies from Nicecrane designs

Colourful Spring Butterflies III

I had used these butterflies on the card I featured here a few days ago - but this time I enlarged it - this is one great thing you can do with Nicecrane's images....they are so easily transformed in different sizes and colours in photoshop or on a word document. I have changed images to sepia before, this time I simply enlarged this butterfly so that it is the focal image.

I began by making the background using Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood and Picket Fence DP. I applied some blobs of paint to the craft mat, spritzed with water and then swirled the card in the paint until it was covered. Then I placed another piece of card on top to make a print. Both pieces of paint covered card were dabbed with a baby wipe to blend the colours together to get a marble effect.

 One piece of card was used as the background and this one I dabbed Brushed Corduroy DI over the edges to darken it slightly

The other pieces I cut into pieces for the title and main picture.

The title was stamped with a flourish stamp in Frayed Burlap DI and had a chit chat sticker applied

 The main picture was edged with hemp string and had lace strips applied

The butterfly was stuck onto card and then cut out. Rusty wire was twisted into antenatal

 Walnut Stain DI was used around the edges of the butterfly to darken the white cut edges and it was also used to stamp some text onto the wings

Frayed Burlap DI was used to stamp flourish , text and script stamps in the corners of the main image

 The frame was made from four pieces of balsa wood stuck onto thick card. Frayed Burlap DP was painted over it and then white antiquing cream was applied . This was wiped away when dry to leave a distressed effect

 Tissue tape was used around the edges of the frame 

 Brass hinge fasteners were used to attach hemp string to the frame

So there is my butterfly frame - going back to my favourite vintage shabby chic style...

Why not pop over to Nicecrane Designs and check out the images there...there are so many - Whatever your style of creating there will be something there you will LOVE!

Happy Crafting!

Love from Laura xxx