The things we do for Art

     Try It On Tuesday is a challenge site looking for something recycled, so all in the name of art I have forced myself to eat a small box of chocolates ( given for Mother's Day) to be able to take part.....now that's dedication!!!!
   Country View Crafts challenge this month is Butterflies and Creative Moments challenge is something with wings so that gave me the direction for my photo frame and also the subject of my photo.
    I have cut and scored the lid of my box so that I can fold the centre in to form the photo recess. I then cut a piece of card the size of my photo and used this to make sure I got the recess right before gluing.
   The whole box was given a light coat of white acrylic paint to try and dull down the swirls and logo before covering it with pages from an old dictionary. I used Eco Green's Matte Medium to stick all the pages on, it's an eco friendly, non toxic medium that sticks really well with no bubbles or wrinkles.

    I decided that as I was going to use a colour photo I would leave the frame black and white. I then wanted to keep my embellishments neutral too, but they didn't really show up very well. That meant I had to colour them a little without over doing it. The pages from a dictionary are also rather thin so I had to put them onto thin card to be able to make the flowers and butterflies.

    Each flower is made from four shapes die cut with Sizzix Tattered Florals. This type of flower can be made with any six petal flower shape. I have coloured each shape with Distress Ink Black Soot both front and back, then stamped using a swirl and gold embossing powder. All decoration was done before assembling the flowers.
    The butterflies are decorated in the same way but only on the top layer. The one underneath is not embossed. To make the antenna I have used some flower stamens and coloured them black with a Promarker. They are also a Sizzix die from the Movers and Shapers range.
    I have only used two flowers and two butterflies as I want the focal point to be the photograph. This is one of my favourite pictures and was taken in the back garden a couple of years ago.
    I have asked my friends to keep any chocolate boxes they may have so I can make some more frames but I don't mind if I have to eat some myself too, after all 'it's all in the name of art!'