Each Show I tease you with some sneak peeks of my showcase but you never get to actually see the final display and this year is no different. But instead of teasing you this time, I' sharing photos of one of the pieces on my Showcase as I make it.
You might recall the posts about the LED light strings that decorated my dining room last year for my birthday dinner bash. If not, you can check them out here.
I'm going to put those lights to use as a decorative feature on my showcase this year by dressing them up a little.
Originally, I thought I'd change the colour because they are quite a bright purple. It would have been easy enough to do - a swipe with methylated spirits would have removed the alcohol ink. But I've decided that the purple works quite well with my "all black and white" theme. So let's get into the how to.
The first thing I did was die cut some white card stock with the butterfly die from Eileen Hull's Birds and Butterflies set. I used a fine and a medium marker to draw 6 different wing patterns on the butterflies. This was a great project for in front of TV last night. In all, I'll need about 50 for this project so this morning I photocopied them onto paper.
Then it was back to the die cut machine to cut them out this afternoon, but not before I did a preliminary cut around the wing tips to help align them in the die. My trusty Sizzix Big Shot made short work of the cutting.
So now I have a bunch of pretty black and white butterflies ready to adorn the battery operated lights. But before attaching them, I've wrapped the light string with black ribbon so that it will blend into the display better.
Tonight I paired up all the butterflies and taped one of each pair.
Now, here's a tip to help you align the two butterflies together perfectly. Only remove the tape carrier from one wing. Then place the other two wings together, back to back, without letting the adhesive touch the wing. The carrier will allow you to swivel the two wings until they are aligned. Once they're straight, you can press the taped side together. Don't remove the carrier from the other wing until you're ready to place the butterfly on the light.
The final step is to place the body of the butterfly over the LED, remove the remaining carrier and tape the wings together. The butterflies looks really pretty both with the lights on and off.
I'll be draping the butterfly light garland around the edge of my display to give it a cohesive and handcrafted look - it is just the perfect finishing touch.
I'll be back later in the week with news from CHA.
'Til next time.....
If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration, click here to find my books and printable pdfs
