Monarch Butterfly in Frame by Jamie

Files Used: Heart Doily by Phyllis Parkins BKD092
Materials: Shadowbox, cardstock, preserved butterfly, rhinestones

One of the things that I remember very fondly from grade school is my 3rd grade class where each student was actually given a caterpillar. We fed our caterpillars, watched them become a chrysalis, and then watched the Monarch emerge from the chrysalis. I truly believe it was that teacher that helped fuel my love of nature.

On my property we have plenty of milkweed and see many Monarchs flying around. While walking the property with my daughter (3) and son (2), I found a dead Monarch in perfect condition. I showed my babies and my daughter was immediately mesmerized. With this dead Monarch I saw a great opportunity to teach my children, hopefully fuel a love for nature, and a great crafting project!!

Once I had the butterfly at home I did some research on the internet to find out how best to preserve our butterfly so that we could display it. Since the wings wouldn't move on their own, I had to put our butterfly in the rehydration box.

After a couple of days in the rehydration box, I was able to easily move the wings without damaging them. Following the directions listed, I placed the butterfly in the position I wanted him for display and left him alone again for a few more days.
In between rehydrating and positioning the butterfly, I created the 13 x 13 layout where we would display our butterfly.

For the wording "Monarch" I used Goudy Handtooled available in Funtime. I LOVED the way this font cut out and my Gazzy cut the small cutouts in the letters out beautifully!!!

I chose the Heart Doily by Phyllis Parkins BKD092 to place the butterfly on to show my love of nature. I also added some ss-10 rhinestones for that little extra something.

The 4 Monarchs that I cut out were from this website. I simply imported them into Funtime and used the option to auto vectorize them. They turned out beautiful and just look at how well the Gazelle cut out those thin little antennas!! I added some ss-10 rhinestones to the tops of the wings and called it good.

As I assembled this project I was prompted to do additional research on the Monarch butterfly. It's amazing how much I remembered . . . after reading it all again. I learned that the Monarch that my babies and I found is a male and you can tell by what looks like dots on the bottom part of the wing. How cool is that?!

Jamie Gillahan – Bosskut Design Team Member
My Crafting Blog
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