Ribbon Butterfly Wings Tutorial from Petrina

Start your butterfly wings by cutting your ribbon into 2x lengths of 8cm and 2x lengths of 6cm.

For this project I used some leftover ribbon from a ribbon club, but basically anything that is approximately 1cm wide will work with these measurements. Obviously you could use wider or narrower ribbon and fiddle around with different measurements yourself.

Double-sided ribbons would look fantastic!!





The longer lengths of ribbon will become the top wings and the shorter lengths will become the smaller, bottom wings.

Fold each piece of ribbon in half back onto itself and pin to its pair (of the same length).


These will ultimately sit behind the white butterflies.  I have altered.
 



This is what they looked like to start with.....







....and this is what they looked like once I'd attacked them with some ink (Versacolor Bisque and Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China) and Glimmermist (Midnight blue and Denim blue).

I actually preferred the back of them once I was done - you can see in this close-up they almost look they are made from canvas now.

As always, altering anything with ink and Glimmermist is a less than precise art - you need to be prepared to experiment and have a go and not be too afraid of the outcome.

(Copic markers would be BRILLIANT to use for this!)




When your butterflies are dry, attach the ribbon wings to the reverse side with some small stitches.










Cover your stitches with some rhinestones and attach the whole butterfly to your layout.

Here is the finished layout - click on it (or any of the other images) to get a closer look.