The First Peacock Butterfly of Spring

Hello Everyone,

I hope it's been a lovely Sunday wherever you are and that your weekend has been fun. We've had rain for much of it which stymied my plans to get out into the garden and do a bit of weeding so I just had to take refuge in the craft room ... such a shame :)

I've wanted to join in with Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge since it was launched but what with one thing and another I just haven't had the opportunity ... that is, until today. The current challenge, entitled Spring Time At Last, is to use the colour yellow and, of course, include at least one butterfly. It's some time since I did any scrapping so I decided I'd make a page for the challenge, using three photos taken recently, all recording the start of spring here in Ayrshire.

I found the clump of celandines hidden away in a quiet corner of our garden - a quite unexpected delight - and the host of golden daffodils are growing on a grassy bank near Asda supermarket. But best of all is the Peacock butterfly - it was the first sighting this year and luckily it decided to take a rest in our garden long enough for me to nip upstairs and grab my camera. Here's a closer look.

Just beautiful!

For the page I've used a mix of pretty patterned papers from American Crafts - 5th & Frolic Laughter Lane and Crate Paper - Happy Day. The strips and the piece used for journaling were found in the snippet drawer ... the name of the designs are long forgotten but makers include BoBunny and K & Company.

For the three embellishment areas I added some strips of washi tape and then stamped leaves and flowers in green (VersaFine Olympian Green) and yellow (Memento Dandelion) inks to the top right and bottom left clusters. Stamps used: the leaf spray is from We R Memory Keepers Botanicals Cotton Tails, the tiny flowers are from Basic Grey, the arrow, pointing to the daffodils, is American Crafts Dear Lizzy, and the word 'Butterfly' in the title is from a Sheena Douglass Paint Fusion set.

I didn't have all the letters needed for the title so it's made up from a mix of alpha stickers - a combination of brown BoBunny Serenity and blue felt HobbyCraft for the main two words. Small green letter tiles from American Crafts Dear Lizzy and buff tiles from BoBunny Ambrosia for the smaller words.

Pebbles flowers, an American Crafts Dear Lizzy butterfly, and a mix of enamel dots from stash finish the clusters.

Because quite a few snippets got used up in this page I'm submitting it to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 119 - my first visit to the playground this week.

This page is going to replace the winter one that is, at the moment, framed and hanging in our hall. Last year the pages were changed month by month but this year I think I'd rather record the changing seasons instead. Apart from anything else that means, that instead of making twelve layouts, I only have to make four ... much more doable methinks :)

I see it's getting way past my bedtime so I'll say goodnight.

Take care and happy crafting,