How to Make a Butterfly Vintage Print - Variation on a Theme

Here's how to make the Butterfly Vintage Print

Butterfly Vintage Print

Inspiration for this Butterfly Vintage Project

There are three intersecting inspirations for the Butterfly Vintage Print. First, the main inspiration is a stunning book I found online called British Butterflies by James Duncan published in 1855. You can find the entire book on a site called biodiversitylibrary.org. This volume has the most beautiful vintage butterfly prints I have ever seen. These vintage drawings have inspired me ever since I first found them.

Butterfly Plate 31 from British Butterflies

Butterfly Plate 31 from the British Butterflies book. Isn't it beautiful?

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

The second inspiration is the gorgeous new stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous called Glorious Bouquet. I figured it would be a great background for the butterflies. Here is another variation for a butterfly background - Glorious Garden

And then the final inspiration is this week's Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp - Grunge It Up. All 3 of these percolated in my mind to come up with this particular vintage butterfly project.

I've made a Vintage Butterfly Print before. It is one of my favorite projects and is actually on the wall next to my computer right now.

My first project based on a vintage butterfly print - Plate 32 from British Butterflies

My first Butterfly Vintage Print - I drew this background to mimic the one in the British Butterflies book

Brief Summary of the steps to make this project:

Print out vintage print from the British Butterfly book
Stamp the Glorious Bouquet in a subtle ink to form the background
Distress the background to look like it came from an old book
Cut out butterflies with Tim Holtz Flutter set
Cut out black background for butterflies
Draw butterfly markings with permanent black ink
Color butterflies
Layer finished butterflies over the black butterfly background
Glue butterflies to the print and the print to black cardstock
Add antennae
Distress box to function as a frame for the print
Place butterfly print in the distress, grunged-up box

Now I'll go over the steps in a little more detail so you visualize the process a little better and maybe use this as an inspiration for your own project.

Print the Vintage Print You Choose

Print the vintage print you choose from the British Butterfly book. There are 34 beautiful illustrations to choose from. I chose Plate 31 for this project. I print out the illustration just so I can look at it while I am working so I don't have to continually go to the computer to see the butterflies.

Stamp the Floral Background

Make background with the Glorious Bouquet or similar stamp. I used the Ranger Archival ink called Watering Can, a lovely grey shade, to form the background on 110# white cardstock. Though this stamp is so beautiful on it can stand on its own, it must be subtle to mimic the botanical background for this project.

Distress the Background

The background needed serious distressing to make it look like it was from a 150-year-old book. I have difficulty distressing with the blending tool sometimes as I tend to leave circular patterns on the paper; most of the time it doesn't matter, but here it does. I decided to wet the paper and paint the distress inks and stains with a large water brush. The effect worked and I think it looks like an ancient page.

Die Cut the Butterflies

I used Tim Holtz' Flutter set and picked out different butterfly die shapes that were close to the design on the print. Notice that none of these butterflies have a "tail" on the wings so I chose the dies with more rounded wings. I am so happy that there are so many choices in this set of butterfly dies.

Cut out a black background for each butterfly

I cut out a second set of butterflies in black cardstock to glue behind my butterflies just to give them a little more dimension. You'll glue them to the colored butterfly a little later in the process.

Draw Butterfly Markings in Black Permanent Ink

Here is the only hard part, drawing the markings on the butterfly. I could have stamped them, but I wanted my butterflies to look like the ones in the illustration so I chose to draw the specific markings as best as I could on each butterfly. And do use a permanent ink and then let it dry. Some of the ink smeared because I didn't let the ink dry enough. Remember you can choose to use stamps and then color the butterflies similar to the ones in the print. That is always an option.

Close up for butterflies for vintage print

Close-up of the Butterflies on the vintage background.

Color the Butterflies

The fun part - coloring the butterflies. Part of the reason I chose this particular print is because I love the blue butterflies. These butterflies are in the same family of butterflies that I colored previously - Polyommatus. They have the loveliest shade of blue. I used distress pens, crayons and a water brush to color these butterflies.

Layer the Butterflies on the Black Background

Glue the body of the butterfly on the body of the black butterfly cutout. Leave the wings free so you can bend them upward a little bit for dimension. Two of the butterflies are resting on a leaf with the wings up so I folded those 2 in half and cut half a black cardstock butterfly for the background.

Glue the Butterflies to the Botanical Background

I tried to glue them in a similar placing to what is shown on the print. Since my flowers are different from the background on the inspiration print, it doesn't really matter that much. But since the print has such a pleasing arrangement, I thought I would use the same one. After that I glued the print to heavy black cardstock to give it a black border and make it a little more sturdy.

Glue Antennae on the Butterflies

On my previous print, I drew the antennae (latin plurals drive me crazy) on with a fine Micron pen. This background is busier so I didn't really think that was a good option as they wouldn't show up very well. I decided to use thread. I coated black thread with glossy accents to make the thread have more body. Then I folded it in a V-shape, and adhered on the head of each butterfly.

Distress the box as a frame for the Butterfly Print

You have to use what you have and what I have at my house are Fancy Feast boxes. They may be a little deep as a frame, but they are sturdy and plentiful. I covered the box with pages from an aged paperback book that was falling apart. Then I whitewashed it a little bit with diluted white gesso, inked and painted with various shades of blue followed by distressing with Distress oxides brown shades and black soot.

Grunged up box for the Butterfly Vintage Print

Side view of the seriously distressed box for the vintage print.

Fancy feast box base for mixed media 3-D projects

It's a Fancy Feast box, alright. I'm not advertising for them. It's just what I have at home.

Adhere the print to the Box Frame

I added a piece of brown corrugated cardboard to the base of the box just for a little more dimension. The print was then adhered to the cardboard which fit nicely in the distressed Fancy Feast box.

And that's it - the latest Butterfly Vintage Print. I hope you enjoyed seeing this project and that you can find some inspiration in the process.

I am sharing this with this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Grunge It Up.

I appreciate comments and pins and likes and stuff like that. Thank you for stopping by my blog.

Here's how to make the Butterfly Vintage Print​