Happy Happy New Year to you and all of yours.....Hope this finds you healthy, happy and ready for all the new adventures 2010 has in store for us!!! We hope you have enjoyed this month of tutorials....we will be returning to regular weekly sketches on Friday next week.....in the meantime thought I would share some of my fave layout embellies.....butterflies! 
These particular butterflies are made from a regular transparency available at any office supply store. I have cut several from carts on my cricut and have also printed some on to the transparency from a sketch I found on the Internet. 
add some simple outlines with permanent markers to the 'back' of the butterfly...these do not have to be perfect.....we will add lots of detail to the front later. Just make what ever outlines you want your butterfly to have in any color.... 
The opaque white is really fun and as you can see I have kept the outlines very simple. 
Paint, paint, paint....any color any type.....you will get a different look depending on the type of paint you chose. 
Once you have your outlines drawn you can add paint....once again the paint will be applied to the 'back' of the butterfly right over the lines....the layers will be seen from the 'front'. For this butterfly I have chosen some gallery glass paint. All the paints will be applied with foam brushes. 
As you can see this is the messy part....just brush your paint on. Paint with a bright color paper as a mat....this will help you see the brush strokes in your paint. You may chose to leave some of the brush strokes or add another coat of paint.....it's all up to you! 
the printed butterflies are simply painted as the outlines are already there. 
Once the first layer of paint has dried you may decide to add additional colors or leave them just as they are. 
Here are the 'front' of the 5 butterflies I cut with my circut after the 'back' has dried.....now lets have some fun!
Now is your time to shine....lol....add stickles and bling to bring these bugs to life! 
On the left: Home Accent blackout butterfly cut @ 2 inches. I drew the outlines in navy, the back was painted with gold metallic folkart paint. I added Cotton Candy and Star Dust stickles and finished off with a bling body.On the right: Indie Art butterfly cut @ 2 inches. I drew the lines with a purple marker and then painted with Harvest Orange paint from Plaid. I added yellow glitter paint to the back and then accented with Yellow stickles on the front. I finished off with lots of bling.
Both of these were cut from Stamping....one blackout and one base cut @ 2 inches.Left: I used my opaque marker in white for the outlines and then painted the back with Metallic Sequin Black folkart paint. Black adhesive pearls and diamond stickles complete the look.
Right: This is the one with the gallery glass paint in Copper Metallic and you can see it is much more transparent. I added diamond stickles to all the black outlines and white pearl paint to make the spots. Gold bling for the body.
On the left: This is cut from Happily Ever After @ 2 inches. I painted the back with Silver Metallic folkart paint and embossed with my cuttlebug. Pretty light turquoise pearls keep this one very simple.On the right: This is the printed butterfly....I simply accented the outlines with some silver glitter paint and added some adhesive pearls for the body.
Now I have a stash of butterflies....won't take me long to go throught them I'm sure....LOL....Hope this has inspired you and given you some ideas.....I would love to see what you come up with so let me know if you try this fun, fun technique!
