for mother's day, i love to create little paper crafted gifts for
the moms in our families, so i was very excited when i saw this post on
lyndsay's blog, with links back to the original project by ali edwards
and another by kelli crowe. wow! it was the perfect project and didn't take very long either. i picked up a couple of the martha stewart shadow boxes when i went to get the butterfly punch, but i wanted to make some smaller versions as well, so i ended up with small canvases for those. i even made a few extras for birthdays! here's a close-up of one of the big ones...

i used the jolie chocolat 8 x 8 paper stack by s•e•i, which was perfect for the box and had some sparkle and shine included. like lyndsay, i added a few a muse twinkle stickers to the outside of the box--the design just begs for them!

here is bird's eye view of all of the small canvases. i wanted them to be somewhat unique, so i created each one using a different paper collection for quick and easy coordination, but i would love to take time one day to create something similar with more random scraps and still come up with something cohesive like ali's. here are a couple more close-ups...

i swiped pink chalk ink over the canvases for a little color and heat
set. to attach the butterflies, i folded the wings up a bit and used crystal effects to glue the bodies to the canvas. a little coordinating ribbon was
perfect for decorating the sides and hiding the staples. and the final
touch was a line of platinum stickles to the butterfly "bodies" for
added bling.

i was totally taken with the butterflies, but this was such a fun project that i have to do it again with other punches. this is definitely one of those projects that looks like so much more than the time it takes to make it!
thanks for flying by...
:) lexi