Spring Butterfly Specimen Art

It's not feeling very Spring-like here today.  It's rainy and cold. Boo!  
 But I'm trying to fake it by having some Spring indoors.  

So I'm sharing my latest project...


it's Butterfly Specimen Art.


I found a piece of thin wood in my stash that I gave a sloppy coat of white paint.  
I didn't even pre-sand the wood, that comes later.




I then taped off a frame around the piece of wood and painted it black.




Then I sanded the wood down to give it some character and get all of the rough spots off.




I punched some butterflies out of patterned paper and glued them onto the piece of wood.




This butterfly specimen art is a part of my Spring Mantel that I'll be back to share.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Spring!!  




spring printable

I love Winter!  I really do, especially winter in Tennessee. 
But the past few days have been beautiful here- sunshine, blue skies, birds singing, etc.  
I think I might be ready to leave winter behind and usher in the Spring!!! 

I made a little Spring Printable to adorn my mantel.  



It's hard to tell in the photo, but there is a very faint grey chevron background.  




Here is the printable.  It's a 5x7 but you could download it 
to your computer and make it any size you want. 



I printed mine as a 5x7, then backed it with a glitter green 
cardstock and put it into a rustic black frame.


My blogging friends also have some AWESOME Spring Projects! Check them out!!  












chevron throw pillows

While I love throw pillows, I have a few struggles with them.  
1.  It's hard to choose what color/pattern to put with our brown leather couches.
2.  I love to change pillows often, so where in the world do I store tons of unused throw pillows?  

While shopping one day, I saw some black and white chevron pillow covers.  (If you aren't a fan of chevron, I'm sorry.  I still am a fan and probably will be forever.) I thought they would go with my wall decor well, but was worried about what they would look like on my couch.  


I bought the covers anyway.  I am pretty happy with how it all looks together.  
I like the mix of patterns and textures on the brown leather.  


I used my favorite trick for pillow inserts (see this post).
I bought some inexpensive decorative pillows at Ross (2 for $13.99).  
I took off the original covers and I then had inserts for a steal of a price.  


The pillow covers are from Hobby Lobby. 
 $7.99 and then used my 40% off coupon on top of it!  Woo hoo!




Less than $15 for 2 new pillows!  When I decide to change these out, I only have to put on a new cover.  The covers will be much easier to store than the entire pillow!


Of course, these will only last a few more weeks until I decide to add some new colors when I redecorate for Spring.  Oh well!  :)


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