Hi everyone, I’d like to apologize for not having this tutorial ready on Monday but, finally, here is the tutorial for the butterfly napkin ring. Life has a way of getting in the way of our best laid plans. I had to wait a few days for some sunlight to get this photo, and even then it’s not the best. I find vellum difficult to photograph without good natural light and wouldn’t you know today we are finally getting lots of gorgeous sunshine . . . Murphy’s Law!
I love the elegance of this butterfly, I recently acquired this stamp and have been waiting to use it. I have an identical stamp that is about four times the size of this one. This is a design I made in my gallery over at SCS with the bigger stamp. If you’re a Fan Club member, you’ll be able to view it.
One thing I’d like to mention about vellum is that over time it will curl, especially if you live in a humid environment as I do here in Florida. I actually like the curl, it gives life to flowers and this butterfly. I shot this photograph and two days later my butterfly curled due to the heavy rains and humidity we’ve been having. The butterfly that I did earlier for the Fan Club gallery that is shown at the beginning of my blog has curled as well. If you don’t care for the curl, you can always flip the napkin ring over and lay heavy books on the wings, this will flattened it back out, but watch out for your next humid day, it’s going to curl right back up.
The supplies I used for this tutorial are:
- Paper: SU cardstock vellum; Canson watercolor paper 14o lbs.
- Ink: Versamark
- Accessories: Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, embossing buddy, Ranger gold/gold tinsel embossing powder, craft knife, Pearl Ex/Gum Arabic, mini glass beads (black and pearl), blender pen, Crystal Effects, self-healing mat.
Stamp and emboss the butterfly on a piece of cardstock vellum, I use Stampin’ Up!’s cardstock vellum because of it’s superior thickness. Stamp and emboss the border on a piece of watercolor paper. I used an embossing buddy to help with the embossing.
I painted the border first, starting with the leaves. It really doesn’t matter if you paint the flowers first, that’s totally up to you. I’m listing the colors I used for this project, please feel free to use colors of your choice. I painted the leaves with #177 Tombow marker. Lightly apply a small dot of color at the upper center of each leaf petal, use your watercolor brush to pull the color down to the tip of the leaf. I also used #68 on some of the leaves for color contrast as I didn’t want all my leaves the same color.
After finishing the leaves across the upper and lower portion of the border, then paint the flowers. I used #’s 553 and 555 for the blue flowers and #’s 757 and 851 for the pink flowers. For the pink flowers, lightly color the flower with your marker (#851), using your paint brush to spread the color. Once the flowers are dry, go back and add a touch of #757 in the petals and gently blend. You don’t want to use too much water on your brush. Do the same for the blue flowers, using #553 first, with a dab of #555 and blend. Do you see the pink spot that I have circled with the black line? I dropped my #757 marker, oops, not very desirable in this project . . . LOL. I took my paintbrush and placed a drop of water on top of the mark and used a soft rag to gently soak up the color. As you can see, it stained the paper. I would be truly worried if I didn’t plan on painting that portion of my border, but I’m hoping at this point when I do paint it, the blush mark will be covered up.
As you can see in this picture, I’ve completed the upper and lower portions of the border. Now it’s time to paint the border center.
I’ve now painted in the center of the border with a mixture of Pearl Ex gold iridescence and Gum Arabic with the watercolor brush. Do you see how the red spot is now covered? My panic disappears . . . LOL! I chose to put this in the tutorial so that you can see it’s okay to make mistakes, I have several on every single design I do. I just try to work with it as best I can and make it part of the design. Look at the difference between the two borders, the Pearl Ex mixture really makes the colors “pop.”
I’ve included this picture to show you my homemade Pearl Ex paints. I add liquid Gum Arabic to Pearl Ex powders and make a thick paste. I place the paste mixtures onto a round palette that I purchase at Michael’s for $0.99. I let the paste sit for a couple of days to harden. I label the colors with a black Sharpie for easy identification. Looking at the palette, you can see that I get quite messy when I’m mixing colors.
Once the paint is dry, use a craft knife on a self-healing mat to cut out the border.
When you’re finished cutting the border, roll it into a circle and use Crystal Effects to adhere the ends together, holding it for a few minutes to let the adhesive dry. I know once Crystal Effects dries it’s permanent. If you use a paper glue, in time it may not hold. As I stated earlier, here in Florida we have a lot of humidity and some of the adhesives don’t hold up well. The napkin ring is so pretty at this point I could use it for my napkin without attaching the butterfly.
I used the same markers on the butterfly that I used on the border and have painted them basically the same, except that I’m now using a blender pen. I’ve tried several pens from different manufacturers and Stampin’ Up!’s pen is my pen of choice, I get great performance out of it and it goes a long way! I’ve experimented with painting the vellum on the front and the back. Conclusion: I like both. The flowers were painted on the front side of the vellum.
After I completed the flowers, I then flipped the butterfly over and painted the back side with the #757 marker going a little darker in the center and pulling the color out to the edges of the wings. I’ve left the abdomen unpainted because I’m going to adhere micro glass beads, alternating with black and pearl.
After I finished coloring the butterfly I let it dry for about an hour and then cut it out using a craft knife being very careful around the delicate antennae. I adhered it to the napkin ring holder using Crystal Effects. You can see the micro beads in the abdomen were placed in an alternating fashion.
I’ve taken this photograph to show you the side view of the napkin ring, I gently bent the butterfly’s wings up.
This is such a beautiful project for a bridal luncheon, a tea with special friends, or almost any special occasion. You’ll really wow your friends, but you’d better be careful, you may find one or two missing when the guests leave.
In my next tutorial we’ll make the butterfly place cards to match the napkin ring holders.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer you.
