Artfully Musing: May 2020

Spring has sprung and I have a new project for you; Buzzy Bee’s Butterfly Boutique. I’ve used a 7” tall 3” deep theatre box (made from a kit) to create Buzzy’s shop.

On the front, you see butterfly fairies sporting the latest fashions while bees and butterflies fly around them. The sign at the top (which you will find further down in the post to download) is accented by Butterfly & Honeycomb Medley that I painted and accented with Chipboard Leafy Swirls, bees, chipboard and metal butterflies and flowers.

When you open the hinged doors you’ll see inside the shop with more fashions and there is Mr. Buzzy Bee himself (you’ll find him further down in the post to download.)

All of the butterfly fairies come from my two new collage sheets, Butterfly Fairies 1 & 2. I’ve also used some older ones; Butterfly & Moths Collage Sheet (or you can use the digital Butterflies & Moths Set Download) and the Dress Forms Collage Sheet.

I’ve used more chipboard leaves, swirls and cattails to frame the rooms and trimmed the inside with moss.

The inspiration from the project came from this sweet 6x6 paper pad titled “Tell the Bees”.

NEW COLLAGE SHEETS

Butterfly Fairies #1 and #2

These two sheets are filled with whimsical butterfly fairies in various sizes. To complement the fairies I’ve included lots of colorful butterflies. You can make them even more magical by adding larger wings from the Butterflies and Moths collage sheet or digital image set pictured further down in the post.

To purchase this sheet click the image below.

BUTTERFLY & MOTH COLLAGE SHEET

To purchase this sheet click on the image below.

BUTTERFLY AND MOTH SET DOWNLOAD

To purchase this sheet click on the image below.

THE DETAILS

After I assembled the theater cabinet I covered it with yellow cardstock. I then used a mini honeycomb stencil and Vintage Photo Distress ink to add the honeycomb pattern to the paper.

Next, I painted a sheet of honeycomb chipboard gold which I then cut into pieces and used to decorate the front of the theatre and also the back. On the back and sides, I added a piece of decorative paper from the Tell the Bees paper pad.

I then used hinges to attach the doors to the back. You want to make sure your hinges are wide enough that brads that are used to attach the hinges clear the edge of the box. To make the attachment marks, be sure to hold the door and back together, then punch the holes and then attach them with brads (I used glue as well).

On the inside, I added more of the paper and then moss around the inside edges.

To decorate the front, I used a variety of chipboard and die-cut vines, leaves, cattails and butterflies which on which I used paint, watercolor pencils, and iridescent powders.

For the topper, I used a chipboard honeycomb and medley piece which I painted and then added bees, butterflies, and flowers. To open the door you need to cut the topper in half.

To cover the cut, I used a dragonfly charm which I glued to only one side of the topper.

To make the paper frames I used three pieces of the paper and drew an oval on two of the pieces.

Next, within the oval, I cut slits into the paper.

I then pulled back the cut paper and tore off the edges of the paper.

Lastly, I stacked the two cut pieces together and mounted them on the solid sheet. I then curled the torn edges back. Before attaching the frames to the shop, I trim away much of the excess back paper.

NOTE: Decide which side of the paper you want to show when the curling is finished as it is the opposite side of the paper where you draw the circle that way you won’t see it when you are finished. You can use more than two torn pieces of paper if you like.

I embellished the butterflies fairies with butterflies printed on vellum. I also printed the fairies multiple times, cut out bits of the dress, and attached them to the main image tape with foam double-stick tape which gave them more dimension. For the antenna, I used flower stamen.

For the dress forms on the inside, I cut up multiple butterfly images (printed on vellum) glued them to a dress form (you can find the stand further down to download for free). In the pictures below, you can see the progression of how I added the pieces of wings. Additionally I accented the dress with dragonfly charms.