What A Busy Week ..

Hello my dear friends,

firstly I would like to say that I am so happy you all liked my butterfly tutorial! I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to give you photos that would be good enough and that you would be able to see how it was made.

I can't believe how busy I was this past week. My husband was home for 8 days and that meant that anything that needed doing had to be done in those days. We are deciding if we should take on a new big house project which is having our basement built out new. We had to have work done to the outside of our house 2 years ago when we discovered that our foundation had  big cracks that were letting water in and we had to rip everything out and then wait to make sure everything would stay dry.

And on top of that the weather was so great here ~ we broke the previous record ~ and our garden needed so much work as well. I am hoping to start the final stage of our outdoor project next month. Salisbury, our willow tree is starting to look great this year again.

And last but not least my back has been bothering me lately again.

All this meant that I had no time for creating really, not even a little. I did have a few little ideas and I did find a little time to find a few new treasures but that's all. I am hoping that this coming week things will settle down a little and I will get a chance to do something creative.

Here are my newest findings ...

 ... a little bit of sparkles ...

... and these neat small antique tins!

 I am not sure what I am going to be creating with these but as soon as something is made I will share it with you.

... some shiny silver painted cast iron butterflies ...

... and some vintage star tart tins waiting to be used in a future Christmas creation and I think I already know what that might be!

Please keep dropping in at Todolwen to see what I might have to share the next time.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Origami Butterfly How To

Hello my dear friends,

I am sure there are many tutorials out there on how to make an origami butterfly but I thought I would put a short tutorial together to share with you on how I made mine. The nice thing about this butterfly is that you should have everything right there with you that you will need to make these lovely fluttering creatures.

Beautiful paper butterflies!

You will need the following:

~  Paper of your choice (nothing too thin or brittle)
~  Scissors
~  Ruler
~  Pencil
~  Ink pad (color of you choice)
~  Glue
~  Thin wire
~  Wire nose pliers


So, let's start ...

Choose the size you would like your square to be, mark it out on your paper and cut it out. I like to make cardboard templates when I am wanting to make more than one of something. I used 3,4 and 5 inch squars for my butterflies.

Now start folding your paper as follows ...

Fold your paper in half both ways.

Then fold your paper diagonally both ways.

Now fold the center folds inwards to make a big triangle that is open at the bottom ...

... like this.

Next fold the top layer upwards towards the top.

This is what your paper should look like at this stage.

Next turn your paper over.

Now fold the corner of the solid piece upwards over the edge ...

... like this.

Flatten the center only ~ not the edges!

Fold the little triangle forward and over ...

... glue it down with a dab of glue. Normally you wouldn't use glue in origami but I think it is needed because of the wire you will place there for the feelers.

 Since you are done with folding your butterfly you can now ink the edges if you wish to do so.

 Cut a piece of wire for the feelers. The length depends on the size of butterfly that you have made and on what you like. I use a 4 inch piece of wire for a 4 inch square of paper. Bend the wire in half and with a pair of nose tip pliers squeeze the bend tightly together and curl the tips.

Next step is with the little triangle facing inwards ...

...pinch your butterfly together and flatten the crease.

Now your butterfly has it's shape.

Last but not least dip you feelers into glue and glue onto the tiny triangle.

All that is leftover to do is to find a place for you fluttering creature and enjoy it!!

I hope the instructions to this tutorial are written well enough for you to use and understand. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me and ask. I work very hard and try to take many photos and write my tutorials as good as I can for you even when I have two very lovable and nosey cats in between glue, scissors and other creating bits and pieces.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Karen B.

At First There Was Chaos ...

Hello my dear friends,

I can't believe that I have started to use my craft room/studio as a ~ how can I call it ... dumping ground!! For some reason I perfered to sit at my big dining room window and work instead in the room I was meant to use and every time I used something I would just put it away in my craft room and closed the door ... until a few days ago!

Oh my ... what a mess!!!

But ... then I decided enough is enough and look at my craft room/studio now!

All tidy and quite organized.

I still have to work on my dressform and I am hoping I will get it done soon.

My daughter Ashleigh gave me her old little desk and now I have a sewing station and it is permanent!! My daughter had bought it at a second hand shop and refinished it and it turned out lovely!

My old dresser is filled to the top with all sorts of treasures inside and ...

...on top as well.

The geese family is my most favourite design I made and the plant on the right used to be my Mama's and now I am looking after it for her. Every time I look at it and water it I think of her!

I am so glad that I managed to clean up my craft room! It is another thing off of my 'to-do list' and a little less weighing on my mind. Sometimes the most wonderful things can start off as a big mess and once you give it a little tender love and care it can turn out to be something beautiful. 

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful, creative and chaos free day!

Karen B.

Have You Ever Tried This?

Hello my dear friends,

I love trying something new which I also did this past weekend ~ I tried Origami. My two girls have done this many times before but I never really had given it a go until I saw a butterfly. I thought it would be neat to try it and I did. I was surprised how easy and fast it was and my first attempt made from plain white paper made me want to make more but out of other things like dictionary pages, book pages and music sheets. I am glad I did because they turned out so nicely. The butterflies have the look as if they just landed to rest I think.

Take a look ...

... my first butterfly made from plain paper.

 

After that followed others ...

... made from book pages, music sheets and dictionary pages!

(many photos for you to see)

I used 3,4 and 5 inch squares and once the butterfly was folded I aged the edges with 'frayed burlap' ink ~ I find it takes the harshness off the folded paper edges. I was very lucky whilst looking through my drawers I found an old spool with vintage wire covered in fabric. It was very old and tattered but perfect to make the butterflies antenna.

As you can see I made a few more. I found a nice piece of scrap booking paper in a dark grey with old french writing on it and that turned out to be a 'midnight' butterfly. I did find that dictionary pages are very delicate when you use older pages and also older book pages do not like to be folded over and over again and they then tend to rip apart very easily.

I am sure there are many different types of paper that could be used to make these beautiful flying creatures ~ you just have to find the one you like most!

I hope you have enjoy my latest creation.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.