Corrugated Butterfly Tutorial

I hope you are having a pleasant week. It is forecast to be a cooler week here, which is a delight to me. I went to visit my parents yesterday and shared such a peaceful ride on their pontoon boat for a lovely evening. What a blessing to spend time with family surrounded by the beauty of God's creation. 

Today, I have a Technique Tuesday Tutorial for you. I have had many kind words on my Corrugated Butterflies, so I thought I would share the steps in creating them. They are actually quite easy to make. 

Here are three I've created. You can see that depending on how you paint, ink, and embellish these sweet butterflies you can get very different looks to go with any color scheme and scrappy style. 

Corrugated Butterfly Tutorial

Supplies:

Supply List:

*Big Shot or other die cutting machine

*Tim Holtz Alterations Movers and Shapers Mini Butterflies or other butterfly shaped heavy die that will cut through corrugated cardboard

*Tim Holtz Alterations Base Tray

*Donna Salazar Zutter Corrugated Board. You can also use scrap packaging cardboard, however be sure to spritz it with some acid free product, and Donna's corrugated board is so easy to use since it is designed for the top layer to release from the corrugated inside easily. 

*Coloring products like acrylic paint, Distress Ink, Smooch Spritz are my favorites, but anything you have on hand should work

*If using acrylic paint, a foam brush works better than a regular bristle paint brush

*Something to created antenna - thread covered floral wire and flower stamens are my favorites

*Glossy Accents or other fast drying glue

Step One ~ Cut Butterflies

Cut small rectangles of your corrugated board the size of your butterfly die(s). If using the movers and shapers dies, place the butterfly dies in the mover and shapers base tray, place the corrugated board on top of the dies, sandwich between the clear cutting plates and roll through your die cut machine to cut.

Here is what it will look like before sandwiching between the plates:

Then after it has been run through your machine:

Step Three ~ Reveal the Corrugation

Remove the top liner paper to reveal the corrugation below. If you are using Donna's Zutter Corrugated Board, you can remove it in one piece and save the shape for another project!! When you remove the liner, little bits and pieces of it will be stuck to the corrugation - I like to leave some of this for the added texture and grunginess that it adds.

Step Four ~ Painted Peaks

When going for a more delicate, girly look, I like to lighten up the corrugated bord with  a lighter color. If you are going for a darker, grungier look you could use a darker paint or skip this step entirely.

For this example I will start by painting the "peaks" of the corrugated board with some antique white acrylic paint. I like to paint just the peak, allowing the natural color of the corrugation to be visible down in the valley of the corrugation. From some trial and error, I've found that a foam brush works best to achieve this effect. I place a small spot of paint on my craft mat and brush some paint across the mat so I only have a small amount of paint on the foam brush. (If you have too much paint on the foam, it will still drip down into the valleys.) 

You can see what I mean in this photo.

(Excuse my mat - it was cleaned, but my well loved and used craft mat is quite stained.)

Now that you have the paint on your foam brush, use a light hand to brush just the peaks of your butterflies. I do like a little paint in the "valleys" right at the very edge, so I go back and hit the very edges of the valleys with a bit of paint as well. 

Here are my painted butterflies:

Step Five ~ Inking/Misting

Ink your edges to coordinate with your project. I like to used Distress Inks and usually apply several to achieve the desired color. Also applying several colors can add depth and dimension. Really though, you can go wild here if you want inking, painting, misting .  .  . the entire butterfly as in my first example at the top of my post with the rusty tones. 

Here is my example with just the edges inked using a combination of purples and brown:

Step Six ~ Antenna

I like to add some kind of antenna to my butterflies. My two favorite materials to use are flower stamens or thread covered wire from the floral department. Today I am using the floral wire. Simply cut off a small length - double the body height plus enough for the two antenna. Fold in half and curl the ends - I use a pair of round tip jewelry pliers, but you could curl them around a toothpick, hole piercer, or any other small round object. Use glossy accents or other fast drying glue to adhere them to the back of the butterfly. You might notice that I had green wrapped floral wire in my supply photo - I simply inked them with walnut stain Distress Ink. 

The really easy peasy way to add antenna is to pick up a pack of stamens from the floral department, fold them in half or if too long, trim them down to the right length and glue them to the back. My third example at the top of this post shows an example done with stamens.

Step Seven ~ Bling

I like to add small pearls or rhinestones down the body of the butterfly to finish it off. If you don't have the right color, a bit of alcohol ink will transform them to a color that will be just right. 

Here are the finished butterflies ready for my next project.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try. If you do, I'd be delighted for you to leave a comment and a link so I can hop over and see your creations.

Now for a bit of sweet news. My Beautiful Life layout of our dog, Ellie, was selected as the top entry at the Scrapping Everyday Miracles challenge to scrap with the theme Created Beauty. And yes, it has one of my Corrugated Butterflies!! What a sweet challenge site encouraging us to find the blessings God gives us in our everyday lives and to scrap them. Be sure to stop by their blog and check out their wonderful site and challenges. 

Thanks for stopping by!! I treasure your comments. 

~ Blessings ~