Encore - Calico Flourishing Butterflies

Here's a blast from the past - a project for Calico Craft Parts from all the way back in June 2015.  There's a wealth of different crackle products in the background, and I had a lovely time adding colour with sprays - something I don't do very often.  It's a slightly different vibe from some of my creations, but you'll recognise the colours and of course my passion for crackle!  Here's what I wrote back then...  (Oh, and if you're not sure what an Encore post is about, you'll find the explanation at the end of the post.)

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Hello everyone, Alison here from Words and Pictures, and I've brought along some Flourishing Butterflies to share with you today.

What I mean by that is that I've been playing with the fabulous Mini Butterflies again, as well as some of the scrumptious Mini Cogs, and they're all nestled around one of the glorious ornate Flourishes now available to create an altered notebook cover which, I will confess, I'm rather in love with!

I played with the layout first of all - you'll notice I ended up with fewer butterflies in the end.

I had a lovely time creating the background - book pages, masking tape and various layers of gesso and crackle mediums are at the heart of it.

I also applied texture paste and gesso to the large flourish before gluing it in place.  I added the metal flowers and filigree pieces, and gesso'd all of it.

I decided I needed a bit of extra crackle texture, so I applied that and let it dry before going on to the next stage.

Ah yes, the next stage - lots of spritzing inky colour over and around it all - such fun.

As well as spraying on inky colour, I also used a paintbrush to apply paint (shockingly conventional, I know) to intensify the colour in places.

That also gave me a bit more control in deciding where and how much colour I was applying to the flourish, the flowers and the crackled "sky".

Both the butterflies and the cogs have been given a touch of golden shimmer using some iridescent gold paint - Interference Gold, which changes as it catches the light.

I've used some of the same stuff to add highlights and gilding on the flourish texture and the metal elements too.

The butterflies gleam as they catch the light...

... and the cogs add a little hint of Steampunk glamour...

(... or should that be Glampunk? - something I explored with one of my first ever posts for Calico way back when - my Glampunk Birdhouse!!)

I love how they glow amongst the other elements.

There are spots and splatters of ink to add extra detail, all in colours to complement the main colours on the flourish.

I quite often leave my Calico Craft Parts "naked" as I find them so beautiful, but as you've seen in my last couple of projects, they're also fabulous when altered, and so much fun to play with!

So there's my notebook cover for you - I hope you like it.  See you again soon.

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There you have it.  I hope you've enjoyed this little wander down memory lane.  I still have lots of these fabulous flourishes in my stash.  I must dig them out when I get home (or make sure they're near the top of my packing when I pack up to move house!).  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you again soon.  Stay safe, stay well and happy crafting all.

Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.

L. M. Montgomery

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm busy.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  For some of you they will be new, but if you've seen them before, please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!