She’s Crafty: a new crafty feature…make a butterfly mobile!

I am starting a new feature today that I am pretty excited about called She’s Crafty!  I’m going to be sharing crafty projects that I complete using goods and books from indie sellers and publishers. If you are like me, then sometimes you need a little kick in the pants to try a new craft or a little inspiration to figure out what to do with it. This feature is my kick in the pants and hopefully the inspiration you need to try some new things.

Not everything I share will be ‘perfect’, but that’s the beauty of this feature. I am not ‘Martha’ and neither are you (at least I don’t think she reads this blog…), but we can still have fun even if everythign turns out a mess. No pain, no fun…or something like that.

I have a lot of really cool projects lined up and will be showcasing some fabric, paper, stamps, encaustic painting and more. Plus, lots and lots of crafty books. If you sell crafty supplies and want to get in on the action, send me an email.

So, to kick this whole thing off I’m sharing a mobile that I made using some gift wrap from feterie (also here). I’ve featured feterie’s wrap before, so I jumped at the chance to play.

And here’s what I came up with! A Pretty Butterfly Mobile!

I made it using materials that I had around the house and feterie’s pretty wrap in the Poppy Fleur & Grape Vendome patterns.  It’s hand screenprinted giftwrap and at $8 for two 19″ x 25″ sheet, it’s a steal too!

Materials

1. Pretty paper like the gift wrap from feterie. Use you can use scraps or about 2 8.5 x 11 sheets.
2.  2 sheets of cardstock
3. Adhesive spray
4. Scissors
5. Ribbon
6. Beads, stones, shells, crystals or some other type of weight.
7. Clear beading wire, fishing line or something lightweight, thin, flexible and almost invisible. Cut into three lengths approx 2 feet long.
8. Dowel or stick, cut to approx 16″
9. 1/16″ Hole punch
10. Butterfly template (see below)
11. Ruler
12. Pencil

How-to

1. Get your stuff together. Print out my butterfly template here (please only use this template for personal use).

2. Use the spray adhesive to bond your pretty paper to the cradstock. You will want to use the spray adhesive outside, so it won’t get all over your nice stuff. I used a ruler to smooth out any bubbles. You can choose to cover both sides of the cardstock or just one. I had enough paper for only one side.

3. Once your paper has dried, turn it over and trace the template. To make a mobile like mine you will need at least 10 butterflies—4 for the middle and 3 for the two sides.

4. Cut ’em all out and look at all your pretty butterflies!

5. Use the 1/16′ hole punch to punch 2 holes in the middle along the thorax of each butterfly.

6. Tie your beads (or other weights) to the bottom of your beading wire lengths. Then thread on a butterfly—see the picture above to see how I did it. Tie a big knot where you want it to hang. I only tied a knot on the bottom and the butterfly ‘sits’ on it.

7. Repeat step 6 until you have all your butterflies and weights on all three lengths of wire. I just eyeballed the placement I wanted (I was going for a haphazard random butterfly effect), but if you want a more symmetrical  placement, you can measure it out.

8. Tie your wires to your stick or dowel. Now you are ready to hang it. Cut a length of ribbon to achieve your desired hanging height (my ribbon was approx 2 feet), tie it to the ends and trim. Voila!

butterflyemplate_mobile.pdf

Here’s a selection of some gift wrap from feterie that you can use for this project or some other crafty activity. I know I have some ideas swirling around my head!