Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Butterfly in a Shadow Box


While on vacation last week in Eureka Springs, AR
I stumbled upon an amazing little DIY wall art project.
 It was "Butterfly Season" down in Eureka, everywhere
we went we found beautiful flowers that
were surrounded by butterflies.





When we woke up our second morning on the trip Jarrett
found a dead butterfly out on our deck.
Please note that the butterfly was already
 dead .... NO animals were hurt in the
 making of this craft project haha!! We named
our dead butterfly "Decker" to commemorate his
death on our deck.


I decided that this beautiful butterfly would be
perfect in a shadow box. So I carefully got Decker back to
Kansas and I immediately bought and unfinished shadow box
at Hobby Lobby. The shadow box was 5"x7"  and
was $3.99, but I used a 40% off coupon (did you know that you
can use that weekly 40% off coupon on one item for every
visit you make to the store that week that the
coupon is for...AMAZING!) To paint the shadow box
I used an acrylic blue paint mixed with a pearl medium
 to give it that glossy effect. 




I then decoupaged a piece of thick white paper (which I
painted with just the peal medium) to the backing of the
 frame. I then just used super glue on Decker's wings to
 attach him to the backing. Now, Decker did get tossed
 around the living room a bit during this project by the air
from the fan, so Decker lost his antennae and one wing,
the wing I super glued back on to him and the antennae
 are yet to be found. Here is how he turned out!




I was pretty excited with this project. I also gained a new
interest in butterflies. So I decided I want to raise them, I know
what a hippie. Jarrett is afraid I might raise them for wall-art-slaughter.
I told him I will set them free once they come out of their
cocoons. But, if some happen to die on the deck after a long happy life
 I will definitely make them live on in a beautiful shadow box.
 I think he his just worried the house might end  up like
this weird attraction, Mrs. Quigley's Castle, in Eureka Springs!

O how lucky he would be if it did!! :)



~Supplies for this project:
unfinished frame $4.00, paint $2, a piece of
scrapbook paper $0.60, decoupage glue, super glue, and
 a butterfly or whatever you want to display in the shadow box

** Cost: about $2-$6 **
depending on if you use a coupon
 and if you already have paper and paint

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