Ever Have One of Those Days?

Good Morning Stampers!

Warning, long post for explanation.  You can scroll down to see my project.

Did you ever have one of those days where things just didn’t go how you thought they would?  That was my day yesterday.  I got an e-mail from one of the lists I am on that mentioned a pentagon box and if you participated you would be entered in a s drawing for a punch art tutorial from Kim Score.  I decided I would participate but rather than create the pentagon treat holder, I got this bright idea to make a butterfly house using screen.

I started out by cutting my screen at 5 x 8 (I wanted my sides to be 1 1/2′ rather than the skinny one they gave.  I scored it at 1/2″ then every 1 1/2″.  I then folded my screen on the score lines (I bought metal screen rather than the fiberglass).  I had to figure out how to join the sides.  I had cut the 1/2 to form a flap but wasn’t sure how I was going to glue it together.  I tried some sticky tape at the top and bottom and it did not work.  Next I tried crystal effects and that did not hold.  Then I got the bright idea to form sides using a method in a pattern I bought from Laura Dennison.  I had the sides all put together and was joining the last sides to form my pentagon and the screen panels kept falling out.  So I decided to try adding some sticky tape at the top and bottom and another pillar inside so the screen was trapped between the 2 pieces of cardstock.

That didn’t work, so I decided to try add some crystal effects.  That didn’t work either.  By this time is it late afternoon as you have to allow the crystal effects to dry.  I had one more idea I wanted to try and then I was going to give up.  But that worried me as I would not have post for today.  My next idea to was to take the bottom and using crystal effects and running a thick bead of it along the fold line then putting the screen in the bead and applying pressure.  Now I did not want to sit and hold the screen in the crystal effects for 30 minutes so I used wax paper and a punch to hold the screen in place.  This meant I had to glue one side and then wait for 30 minutes then glue the next side.  Realize I had 5 sides on the top and 5 sides on the bottom so the time to make this took 5 hours off and on.  But this method finally worked.

Now that I have my screen house put together it was time to decorate and hope that my bottom border and top roof attaches without any issues.  I had the bottom on but it wouldn’t stay when I realized I had put it on upside down.  So I turned it around the right way and other than being a little smaller than the pentagon base it worked.  I used some crystal effect on the 1/2″ flap to help keep it closed.

Next I had to attach my roof.  That went really quickly.  The last thing I needed to do was decorate it.  I cut some leaf stems using the little leaves sizzlet and attached them to the top.  I also cut some butterflies using the Beautiful Butterflies embosslet.  I saw on Julie Davison’s blog where she had used the Build a Blossom punch to create a butterfly.  I wanted to try something a little different.  So I punched a butterfly using the butterfly punch and Daffodil Delight.  I then took some yellow netting I had bought and wrapping it around scrap cardstock I punched a bunch of butterflies from the netting.  I then took my crystal effects and applied to the center of the butterfly and laid the netting on top.  I kept adding my layers and added more crystal effects as needed.  I then took the smallest leaf on the punch and using black punched it out.  This became the body of the butterfly.  I set this aside to dry.  When it was dry I added my butterflies and then used some silk flowers and added them to the top.  My project is finally finished and ready to be added to my sunroom when it is finished.  Here is my final creation.

I hope you enjoyed my project today.  While it took a long time to create, I took advantage and of the drying time and made a mini scrapbook for tomorrow as well as a project for my Hand Stamped Sentiments requirement on Tuesday.  Thanks for looking and have a Super Saturday!

Robbie