UKS Spring Blog Hop - Mixed Media Butterfly and Altered Picture Frame

Hello everyone and welcome to the UK Scrappers Spring Blog Hop. 



If you lose your way, or have dropped in on me directly and want to follow the hop, you can see the full list with all the links here . UKS are also offering a prize to a randomly chosen person who comments on all the blogs, so check the thread for details.

I am very pleased to be participating, because it will be a fond and fitting farewell from me as I will be shortly emigrating to Australia, taking very precious memories of the many friends I have made through UKS and our wonderful craft. 

My project is this mixed media Butterfly within an altered photo frame.  I wanted to give you an example of the types of project you can achieve from items that you probably already have in your home.  No need to go to any extra expense - just devote some time and some crafty elbow grease!  :)

 

 



  

As we are currently trying to sell our house, I realised when looking around that the walls were a bit bare. Time was not on my side due to an imminent viewing in a few days, and I only had a very limited amount of time to devote to a project. 

 

I am also trying to destash and declutter, so have been going through and rationalise my supplies. I came across this butterfly made from acrylic packaging for an exhibit that I created some years ago that never made it to its proposed destination so I decided to repurpose it to a picture instead. 

 

Painting the Photo Frame

 



Step One -

Start with a frame.  Here's one I've had hanging around the house for many years. 

 

 

I wanted to coordinate with my bedroom scheme, which is maroon and grey/silver. I decided to go with a mid grey for the frame, so gathered my supplies for that:









I keep an old icecream tub in my paint drawer which comes in very handy for painterly projects. I just wash it out after each project and store it away for the next one.  I used a large foam brush to paint the frame which I think is much better than normal brushes as it doesn't leave brush marks.

I have a large supply of Jo Sonja acrylic paints and mediums and find these are of great quality. I added a small amount of black paint to the white to make a shade of grey that I liked. Flow Medium is used to thin the paint and make it "flow" better onto the project surface.

I only had to wait a matter of minutes before adding another coat. Three coats did the trick!

 

Step Two -

The Altered Butterfly

 



I found some acrylic packaging of a good weight and freehand cut a butterfly. If I'd have known then how it would be finally used, I would have made the butterfly smaller, so as to be more in proportion to the size of the frame.

I pounced alcohol inks around the butterfly until I was pleased with the finish. From memory, I used a combination of Wild Plum, Caramel and Rust for the background. I cut some spots from an old stamp catalogue, choosing images which I wanted to represent the symbolism of the project. I made up a saying, and then cut out appropriate words from magazines. I adhered some heart sequins down the spine of the butterfly, and then grunged and shabbied everything up with a magenta coloured crayon. I stuck two purple sequins on the antennae and then outlined everything with Gun Metal stickles - more of a distress product than a stickles one, because it is more suitable for a grungy mixed media project as it doesn't have the sparkle.

 

Step Three

The Butterfly Background:

 

I used a white sheet of paper that comes within some of the page protectors and cut it down to the size of the slip of branding paper in the frame. 

 

With a second sheet of paper, I traced around the butterfly and cut out a slightly bigger shape as a mask, as I thought I would like a halo effect around it as a contrast.

 

I thought there was no point in inking behind the butterfly, and also felt that it would appear lighter with a white background.  So I adhered the mask to the white background with some Herma repo and started to ink the background.  I found the ink went onto the paper more smoothly with a cosmetic sponge, and started with the Antique Linen colour closest to the butterfly, which replicated the colours within the butterfly. 

 



  

I then inked Spun Sugar just around the butterfly edge for some contrast. 

 

  

Then I went to work on top with a large script stamp, using the Pumice Stone distress ink.  The next stage was to stamp off (ie stamp a first image onto some scrap paper, and use the second stamping on the background) other butterfly images onto the background. 

 

I found some butterfly rub-ons in my stash, which I added, and then later covered over as I didn't like their colour - I felt it was too strong on the really subtle background.  That is why this background differs to the final look of the project.  Don't be afraid to go back and "fix" what you don't like! I punched out some other butterflies and coloured them in with the same combination of distress inks. 

 



  

 So here again is the finished item, made with no extra expense or purchase -



 



 

See - no sign of any rub-on butterflies! I just covered them up with stamped images to blend in with the background. 

 



Supplies:

Altered Frame:

Jo Sonja Acrylic Titanium White, Carbon Black, Flow Medium

Foam Brush

 

Acrylic Butterfly:

Recycled Acrylic packaging

Cut out words from magazines

Alcohol inks:- Wld Plum, Rust,  Caramel

Stickles - Gunmetal

Purple sequins

Heart Sequins

Crayon

Old book pages (I used a stamp catalogue)

 

Butterfly Background:

White paper

Ranger Distress Inks: Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Seedless Preserves

Stamps: Prima clear script, PSX Butterfly

Punches:  Martha Stewart Butterfly trio

 

 If I had realised that this project would have ended up in a frame, then as I said earlier, I would have made the butterfly smaller.  It was serendipitous that it tied in with the colour scheme of my bedroom, otherwise I would have had to start from scratch with a different project. 

 

For a change to win this lovely set of Hexagon Framelits, please leave a comment below by the end of the hop, (ie by midnight today) and tell me what kind of similar project you've done around the home (a link to an image would be good), or how this post would inspire you to create a DIY home decor project?

 

Why don't you go onto the the next UKS Blog stop, Beautifullily?  Happy hopping!  :D