Craftberry Bush

Spring muslin butterfly…an animated mini tutorial

Spring & Easter Crafts

Good morning sunshines!

I rarely write posts at this time of day, but as the morning sun streams through the window and the silence of our home is broken by the tender cooing of mourning doves, I feel content. 


Even though this morning’s dishes are sitting in the sink, the recycling bin needs emptying, laundry put away and my craft supplies returned to their shelf, I am content…  

Even though the car’s ‘check engine’ light came on this morning and will probably require a lot of money to fix, I am content…

It’s easy for me to lose my joy over dirty dishes, dusty floors or especially ‘check engine’ warning signs.  But don’t dirty dishes mean we were blessed to have been able to eat?  Dusty floors mean we have a house to call home and out of place craft supplies mean that I have been given a beautiful talent that I should not take for granted?  Never mind the fact that I’m wealthy in health and that I am able to get off this chair and do the dishes, clean the floors, put laundry away and even walk to my destination if the car decides to break down… 

So today, I am choosing JOY and one of the ways I find joy is by creating and sharing with you…


 Photobucket

I have been playing around with animated GIFs and thought I would share a mini tutorial of how I painted this little butterfly onto muslin using one. 

1. Draw a butterfly onto a piece of muslin; if you do not have muslin, canvas or even painter’s cloth would work well. 
2. If you are not comfortable with your free hand drawing skills, trace around a butterfly sticker or cutout.
3. Lightly draw in the details with a pencil.
4. Pick your colour palette. I chose warm colours that blend nicely into each other (these are called analogous colours in art terms).
5. Start with a dry brush and paint a little bit of pink towards the centre.
6. Dip your paintbrush in water and clean residual pink paint.  With the wet brush, go back to the picture and ‘spread’ the pink paint outwards (the paint will ‘bleed’ nicely onto the fabric causing a wash effect).
7. Dip your brush in the orange paint and apply as shown.
8. Clean brush and repeat ‘washing’ technique as before. 
9. Continue to apply the next colour (yellow) and follow the same procedure.
10. Use a small amount of red for the inner area of the butterfly’s body and wings. I also applied a little bit on the tips. 
11. Fill in body with brown using a fairly dry brush. I recommend waiting for the paint to dry for this last step or the brown will ‘bleed’ onto the rest of the butterfly (you can see a little bit of that occurred on the picture)
12. Allow paint to dry and cut out if desired. 

I painted some simple ivy onto a paper tag from Canvas Corp and hot glued my little butterfly on.  I then used some of my stamped linen and attached it to the tag.  The cotton cord is also from Canvas Corp. 

Here is cool colour palette using the same 
technique.  I will be using these for another project.

Nature offers the best colour palettes, don’t you think?

I made this one for Bella’s room using the same 
butterfly, but adding hand embroidered details…

As I was painting these butterflies, I once again realized how much JOY art truly gives me as it transports me to a world where I am just happy….:)


I hope your day is filled with JOY!


much love,
Lucy 


ps – what did you think of the moving pictures?  Does it work for us ?











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Comments

  2. WOW! Beautiful! I am always impressed, amazed and inspired when I come here. These are amazing, Lu…and I love the way you did this demonstation. Hope your day is wonderful! xo Diana

    Reply

  9. Oh Lucy, those butterflies are so pretty! I totally want to make some. I think they’d look so good on my daughter’s pinboard. I love the GIF too. One of the blogs I follow, just had a tutorial for making those 🙂

    Reply

  11. This is amazing Lucy! I love the moving pictures! I read the instructions and watched as each layer came to life 🙂 It is perfect! Thanks so much! This look easy the way you do it and I can’t wait to try it!

    Reply

  12. 1) I love how it moves
    2) Your check engine light—when ours goes off, it means change your oil. Maybe that’s all it is–ours goes off automatically at 5,000 miles.
    3) GORGEOUS!!

    Reply

  15. Goldie March 28, 2012
    Love your blog and it’s inspiration. I’m starting to do creative things again even though I’m over 80 because of all the creative things I see on the blogs I follow. I used to paint many years ago and may start again because of you. God bless!!

    Reply

    • Oh Bless your heart. Thank you so very much . How wonderful it would be for you to pick up a brush again and feel that joy of creativity… I hope to one day reach the wise age of 80 and still be holding a paint brush between my fingers….YOU have inspired ME with your sweet words…thank you…xoxo

      Reply

  18. Oh Lucy! You gorgeous girl for sharing such a pretty idea with us. I adore butterflies so I’m definitely bookmarking this one. J x

    Reply

  21. I just loved your little paragraph about having dirty dishes because we have just eaten etc. How true! You have made me look at chores in a way that I have never done so before!

    Reply

  23. This is wonderful and so full of joy! Thanks for the positive thoughts! I love the animation. So much better than watching a YouTube Video. Just as informative. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  24. Love the moving pictures – you are so “cutting edge”! Thanks for the reminder of blessings. I’ve been down lately because something I’ve wanted for awhile is right in front of me, yet I can’t have it. And, in the midst of wanting it so badly, I’ve forgotten what I’ve already been blessed with.

    Reply

  27. I love that you handpainted the butterflies rather than doing an image transfer Lucy…they are so soft! You are so right about seeing everything in our lives as a blessing for the fact we do have them. A lovely reminder for us all…

    Reply

  28. Hi, Lucy! I just discovered you through Canvas Corp via FB. Your tag is just gorgeous…I love it, in fact!!! I’m wondering if it would be okay for me to pin this tutorial to my Wrap, Tag & Adorn pin board? Thank you & many gorgeous blessing! ~H♥~

    Reply

    • Hi Heather…thank you so much for being so courteous and asking for ‘permission ‘ to pin…. Please go ahead.
      I tried to reply to your message directly but I could not locate an email for you…thanks again for stooping by…have a good day ! Xo
      Lu

      Reply

    • Dear Lucy,
      Thank you for your joyful post and reminding us that choosing how to view life can enhance or detract from our days.
      Your animation of the painting of the butterfly was neat! Love that canvas with the blue and purple butterflies and can’t wait to see what you’re going to turn that into.
      Thank you for sharing your life and your prodigious talents!

      Reply

    • Adorable spring crafts , and also I liked the moving pictures! Going to try that beautiful butterfly:)
      (Removed my first comment because of bad spelling, sorry)

      Reply

  41. I attempted to follow this tutorial’s instructions using Adobe Animate, but it did not go as planned: when I performed the flight action by double-clicking to open and close the wings, it appeared to function, VIDEO ANIMATION COMPANY LOS ANGELES but when I returned to the scene, the wings were static and interpolated along the thread.

    Reply

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