It started out as yet another attempt at the Ali Edwards butterfly collage…

It really did. I’ve been meaning to make a version of Ali’s project ever since I bookmarked it back in February, lol! I had gotten the Martha Stewart punch AFTER the first time I tried this (with the circles here). After doing some playing, I found that I really loved this punch layered with a bit of folding to the top butterfly to give it dimension. So I made a pile of them without particularly counting or anything. I used several double-sided sheets of Cosmo Cricket from the Gretel line. Yes, sigh, I DID think about applying for the DT position and picked up a few more pieces of Cosmo Cricket last time I was in Champaign, but in the end decided I probably didn’t have enough of their newer stuff to stand a chance so decided against it after all. Anyways. After I had all these cute little butterflies, I thought it might be cute to do their centers in glitter. So out came the Scribbles. Then I was in love with the sparkle so added some more to the edges of the wings.

I was finally ready to make my collage. I had an 8×8″ shadow box frame from EK I wanted to use for this. I tried it on white. Eh. Tried it on various colors from the Gretel line. Eh. I give up. That collage just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me, lol! So instead I just started to play with the design of the paper I liked best for this and remembered a picture I had of my son and his dad (one of our last outings as a family, come to think of it) and thought it would be just perfect. I plan on giving it to my son’s grandma – it includes most of her favorite things – her grandson, her son, and loads of GLITTER, lol! Yes, more glitter on the background as well as some bits of Glossy Accents. A few more butterflies on the frame itself and voila – ready for Grandma’s enjoyment! I still have about a dozen more completed butterflies and am almost done with another project using two. I’ll share it later! LOVING how it is coming out though!

Here is the frame opened (it opens from the front like a book) to keep the glare off.

This is a closeup of the upper left corner.

This is an extreme closeup of one of the butterflies.

Closeup of the butterflies on the frame itself.

And a bad shot of the whole project. Sorry – had the excess help of a seven year old bouncing through the room while I was trying to do this!