butterflies Archives - girl. Inspired.

Butterfly Chandelier DIY

October 11, 2011 by girlinspired 24 Comments

I didn’t take many pictures along the way, but I’ll tell you how I made this butterfly chandelier because I know some of you want to make one, too. And you definitely can, but I’m not gonna lie, it’s going to take some serious dedication.

When I first saw a chandelier like this, I knew I’d have to make one if we ever had a butterfly birthday party. Then, Olivia announced her theme – hooray!! All the credit here goes to April Meeker – you can see her incredible version here.

I made the chandelier with one foam wreath form (for the larger bottom) and a smaller embroidery hoop (for the top). I punched about ten million butterflies from patterned cardstock using three different craft punches (two are Martha Stewart punches). Then, I started hot gluing the smaller butterflies to cover all sides of the forms. This took a really long time to cover the wreath form. If you don’t want to dedicate a good chunk of time to this project, ~~pick a different project~~ you could probably speed things along by using a large embroidery hoop on the bottom as well. After the first layer of butterflies, begin layering again. Use both small and large butterflies and glue, glue, glue!

Once I finished covering the hoops, I used three long pieces of ribbon to connect the two hoops together and then knotted the ribbon at the top so that I could hang it easily. I blinged up the chandelier with leftover crystals from my real chandelier makeover project. Then I sewed long strings of small paper butterflies and draped them around the outside and straight down the center. A few other pieces of ribbon at various lengths were also hung down the center, and voila!

It’s so pretty, huh? I need to find a place to hang it in my house – I think it’s headed to the big girls’ bedroom. What are you going to do with yours?

Linking up over at Tatertots and Jello!

my little girl, age 6 (and party pictures)

October 6, 2011 by girlinspired 18 Comments

Dear Olivia,

You have grown so much in the last couple months, it’s no wonder that another birthday has come to pass. Six years old. I always tell you to stop growing, to stay my sweet little baby, but then I tell you, too, that each day brings me so much happiness and pride as I try to absorb all the new things you’ve seen and heard and learned. It’s impossible to freeze time, and honestly, I’m as excited to see you grow as I am to remember every stage you’ve already gone through.

You are incredible and I look forward to each new day as I watch who you are and who you become. Your anxiety over being apart from me has begun to change as you develop friendships and an identity off at school all day. And though you’re still building confidence to approach a group, your strength of conviction once you’re there is amazing. You are starting to walk around the house with your nose in a book and remind me of myself as a child; learning to read really is the coolest thing. While last year you would say that your favorite part of school was recess, you proudly shout “Math” this year – another reassuring piece of evidence that you are a product of your mom and dad.

I watch you as you observe others’ interactions and conversations and I hold my breath to see how they will effect your sensitive little being. We talk a lot and sometimes we just exchange words with our eyes and I know what you’re thinking or feeling, even if we don’t speak. Most of the time, you bring things up later, sometimes even days later. I hope you’ll always talk to me. I find myself struggling with maintaining your innocence versus preparing you for the world that is already out there. I think about homeschool.

Your favorite color continues to be pink and you love all things sparkly, fluffy, glittery, and girly. Your daddy picked out pink cowgirl boots for you for your birthday and your mommy picked out an oversized toy pony. You dream of being a cowgirl and I dream of helping you to make all your dreams come true. Your ability to nurture and teach is remarkable; your patience is incredible.

You asked for a butterfly tea party and I did everything I could to give you the most amazing party. I started planning early, which did not result in finishing early. Instead, we moved out the goal post (as you daddy says). Several times. It was awesome. I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was just so excited and when I woke up extra early to set everything up, you woke up too, and said, “But mommy, you always sleep in,” and I said, “You always sleep in, too,” and then we giggled and I put your hair in hot rollers and you hoped it would last your whole party, but it didn’t. You didn’t notice because you were having too much fun running around with all your girls. I love you so much, Olivia, so much. Having you and your daddy and your sisters in my life is the greatest blessing and I am truly grateful every day.

Love,

Mommy

**I will likely share specifics on a few of the party projects, but if there is something in particular you’d like information on, please let me know. Too many projects and pictures to guess what’s of interest to others. I opted for the personal documentation route.**

Linking up over at Tatertots and Jello!

little pots of glorious paint

September 1, 2011 by girlinspired 7 Comments

Today, we’re going to talk about coloring your gumpaste butterflies using coloring dusts. For some reason, these little pots of color make me really happy. Not just because they are so awesome to use, but even just looking at these pictures gives me a thrill. I guess I’m a sucker for shimmer. Put it on dessert? Even better. I ordered several little pots of lustre and petal dust in shades of pink and green so that I would have some variety for the butterflies. The declared colors for Olivia’s party are pink and green, and only pink and green.

I found the dusts so much easier to use than I anticipated. Here’s how:
Mix about 1/4 teaspoon of lustre dust or petal dust with a few drops of clear liquid extract (peppermint, lemon, clear vanilla, clear liquor). Do not use water; the coloring dust will not blend in. (I mixed the paint in cleaned applesauce containers. I like to keep a few on hand to hold regular paint or water for the girls. They were perfect for this project, too.) If you get too much liquid, just wait a few minutes; some of the liquid will evaporate out and you’ll be good to go.

Dip a brush into the mixture and then just brush it over the butterfly. (I used a kid’s paint brush (new and clean), but I expect that a small little makeup brush would be the perfect tool.) If you’ve mixed the right proportions of powder and liquid, the paint goes on silky and provides beautiful coverage. It’s not runny, but it also easily fills the grooves and crevices, like in the detailed butterfly wings. The extract evaporates quickly, leaving behind saturated color and shine. I did a couple coats on each butterfly. For the two-toned butterflies, I painted one color first and allowed it to dry, then filled in the other color without the colors blending into each other.

I am still working on the perfect body to connect the wings. For these cupcakes, I ran a bead of royal icing, then placed the wings in the icing and allowed it to dry . It held well on some of the butterflies and not as well on others. I’m still experimenting with the best technique.

This concludes the gumpaste butterfly lesson for now. You’ll see more in a few weeks when I do the “real deal.”

I got the lustre and petal dust here: www.sugarcraft.com

If you missed the other steps to make these butterflies, you can check them out here and here.

eta: Lustre dust colors used on butterflies here include: Rose Pink, Orchid Pink, Olive Green, Avocado

And…I think I finally have some furniture project pictures worth showing and a super satisfying clothing refashion project, so stop in again soon!

Making Gumpaste Butterflies

August 30, 2011 by girlinspired 7 Comments

Thanks for all the kind words on these butterflies! To hear that you guys are excited about making them makes me even more excited to share how easy it is with you! Let’s get to it! I was browsing butterfly-type cake-decorating paraphernalia when I came across silicone molds on sugarcraft.com.

I thought they might be the perfect tool to create the cake I’m envisioning for Olivia’s upcoming “Butterfly Tea Party.” I also purchased some pre-made gumpaste and lustre dust. Thinking I’d benefit from lots of practice, I tried out the mold a few days ago. It worked like magic; I highly recommend you go get a mold and see for yourself. Today, I’m going to show you the easy steps to make the gumpaste butterflies and then next time, we’ll talk about decorating them.

Roll a small piece of gumpaste into a ball and then roll it out like a thin pancake; use cornstarch to prevent sticking. As I mentioned, I purchased Satin Ice pre-made gumpaste. There are also many recipes out there to make your own.

Place the gumpaste over the mold.

Set the other piece of the mold over the top. Press firmly.

Remove from mold. Use included cookie cutter to perfectly remove excess gumpaste.

Repeat to create full butterfly. Admire your work. I love that this mold creates a beautiful three-dimensional object. Both the front and back of the butterfly have perfect detail.

Allow the butterflies to dry overnight before decorating. They will become hard, but handle easily without breaking.

Butterfly mold is made by and can be purchased at: First Impressions

Mold, gumpaste, coloring dusts available at: Sugar Craft

Next time, we’ll talk about taking your dried butterflies and turning them into colorful little works of sugar art using lustre dust!

sugar butterflies

August 29, 2011 by girlinspired 13 Comments

We’ve been practicing our butterfly-making skills. I’m thinking they’re looking pretty darn good. Thing is, it didn’t take much to make such beautiful little pieces of sugar. I’ll tell you my secrets, don’t worry. But there are too many pretty pictures of the butterflies to stick it all in this one post. So today, yummy pictures, tomorrow, magic tricks. Okay?