Flutter bye....oh butterfly!

It's that time - end of the school year, and I always like to make something homemade for the teachers, even if it is a card to hold a gift card. Abby has a number of teachers in her pre-school program, so I came up with the idea of buying them a flower that would come back year after year (dianthus) and creating flower pokes as an accent, keepsake. I used Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress and Frames-1 along with Butterflies-2 templates, and a variety of patterned papers from my stash that matched the bright pink flowers. Stickles really dress up the outer edges of the wings, and buttons, with fun wire looped in the top and twisted around a paint brush handle complete the whole butterfly creation. On some of the less busy papers I used heart-shaped Rain Dots, for the love Abby has for her teachers.

A magnet on the back easily allows them to be transferred to the refrigerator or metal cabinet. On the lower half of the back side I used my Fiskars Round n Round large circle punch, put adhesive around all but a 1/2" or so, and centered it on the lower half of the card with the open area at the bottom - this creates a pocket for the stick.


As you can see, I used green cardstock for my base shape on all of them, which simplified the process. The quote, which is one I have loved for years for teacher gift giving, ws printed on the computer.

Want to see my favorite?


Pretty isn't it? I thought I was so clever in using a piece of green fun wire, about 1.5" long, and curving it into a slight V shape. I put a glue dot in the center, and then pressed the center of the butterfly shape onto the wire - gently curving the wire so that the wings of the butterfly had much more dimension than foam squares could provide on their own.

Not to completely change the subject...but what a weird weather day. Last night it was SO humid that my camera fogged up when I took my plant pokes and flowers out onto the deck for a photo shoot. This morning the sun was shining as we had a steady rain. All day long the clouds came, then the sun, clouds, sun...but what arrived about mid-morning was the wind. I am not sure what MPH it is out there...but flowers in planters are breaking off and it's dodge trash can time in the streets, if you know what I mean.

So I was cautious. I had the flowers and their pretty little pokes all lined up in a cardboard coffee carrier for easy transport into Abby's school this afternoon. I opened the car door, prepared to hover over my special little gifts and WHOOOSHHH!!! The wind came, caught the raised wings of those butterflies and off they flew across the school parking lot!! I quickly set the plants down and the pokes that did not get taken on the car seat and took off after them. They blew under cars, up again, over some rocks, onto the grass...and ALMOST to the highway. I caught the both of them -surprised at just how fast and limber I can be. (LOL) Returning to the car I counted my pokes...oh oh...one was missing. I am certain only 2 had flown off, but I had left my car door open...and I suspect another WHHHOOOSH of wind came along and snagged a 3rd butterfly while I was chasing the others down. Pooh!! It was my favorite one too! I just loved the Tinkering Ink paper and the butterfly template gave me a complete visual so I could line it up just so for symmetry in the wings...just like a real butterfly would have. I was crushed - I've been working on these babies for the past several nights and now I was short one.

Urggh! But oh well...there was nothing I could do about it. I went into the school foyer where the kids and three of the four teachers had gathered. The other teacher is a speech pathologist and apparently her last day was Thursday. Guess who wasn't getting a flower poke? But the other teachers were going to email her and let her know she had a flower on her desk. The teachers enjoyed the pretty card, but most of all they said how much they enjoy receiving flowers this time of year, especially ones they can plant and watch them return each spring.

So have you learned a lesson from this? I have. Besides the obvious...if the wind starts breaking the 40-50 mph speed find a covered BOX for transporting light weight items. More so, however, it makes me wonder if I might be able to craft a larger scale version and create my own style kite? Fun wire is very light weight...foam adhesive squares are pretty durable... by George I think I am on to something!

Happy crafting, and if the wind is blowing your way be on the look out...you just might find one of these in your yard...and you can report back to me on just how durable those glue dots are! (LOL)