The Travelling Butterfly 2: Revenge of the Fallen Frame

Hello again! Got your popcorn ready?! The sequel to yesterday's post, The Travelling Butterfly, is about to start!

This post could also be titled "2 Frames 3 Ways". Let's find out what happens when I get bored and the seasons change, shall we? The story began with these 2 walnut frames and their 2 DIY prints - Mr. Butterfly, collaged together with some insect clip art and printed by moi, and his sidekick, Mr. Bird, cut from a Cavallini calendar. Here they were this past fall, leaning on the ledge shelves in the family room.






Like we learned in the first post/movie, I eventually decided to hang the frames here in this spot between the windows in our living room. (At that time, we didn't have these full-length drapes up yet, so there was more room on the wall..more to come on this later. Talk about suspense, huh?!)





But then came the holidays...and I love to decorate for Christmas. I figured it would be a shame not to take advantage of these two frames and so decided to switch out what was inside them for something a bit more festive. Exciting but sad...bye bye Mr. Butterfly and Mr. Bird. (Don't worry though, they went back in the frames once New Years was over, and stayed there until I decided I wanted the butterfly for our office/studio.) I didn't want to purchase any new prints or photos for this holiday project and wanted something in our color palette so that it would still coordinate with the room even though it was seasonal. So I DIYed these 2 prints using the lyrics from "The Night Before Christmas". Using large text made this new decor seem a bit contemporary but at the same time the nostalgia and tradition of this old tale added warmth and history.




Fast forward to spring and the now empty frames since Mr. Butterfly flew upstairs to his current home. I needed something new here. Conveniently, one of my friends had just given me this great old field-guide type book of botanical illustrations that he found at the dump (in the other people's trash could be your treasure section). Perfect! I cut out 2 of the pages that picked up on the new blue and green accent color scheme I have going on for spring/summer and put those in the frames.





During all this drama, romance and action we hung these window treatments. So now I think its a bit too dark and crowded on this little bit of wall. Just last night I decided these frames are going to move again, and I'm going to bring in something smaller and brighter here. Who knows where this pair of walnut frames will end up next?

Comments

  1. Aw...the walnut frame couple enjoys a busy traveling lifestyle! I love their holiday attire and they're so photogenic! lol

    Your living room is still my most favorite source of inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gosh, Sarah, I love those lyric decorations for Christmas! I've tried to do things like this with literary quotes, but I can't seem to get things to work like I want them to. Any secrets you can share??

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are so talented! Please share in a pdf file so we can print it....purty please?

    I love your drapes and the little starfish on the coffee table.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done! Love them at Christmas and now! I do the very same things!!!!!!! Yay.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm with Tina... share you secrets on getting the words to fill out the page just perfect. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, everyone! Thanks so much for all your great comments..its such a joy to read them:)

    Tina - Hey! Awesome idea to use literary quotes as decor, love it!!! Perfect for a reader like you.

    Alyssa - OMG! How are you? Congrats on the pregnancy!! So happy to see good old Makena around these parts:)

    Ok, let me see if I can help at all with fitting the text on the page. I did these in Adobe Illustrator, but you could use Word or Powerpoint or Photoshop, etc. I made an 8 x 10 box as a guide, since this is how big the opening in the frame was. Chose 2 or 3 fonts that I thought worked together and didn't worry about the color of the words until after I had the layout down.

    I guess I picked either long words or words that stood out as important to the story or that were more recognizable to be the ones that got their own line and therefor were the largest font size.

    Each one of the words is actually its own little text box so that its easier to manipulate. In this way I could first place the big words like Twas, Night, Christmas, Stirring, Mouse, Stockings where I wanted them and then go back and fit in the other words.

    Use your box or guides to make sure that the first and last letter of each line is aligned on the left and right to make the overall composition feel like its contained inside this nice little invisible rectangle.

    Once you think you have everything in the right spot, then maybe worry about changing the font and adjusting the color. To make it feel balanced, spread out both the fonts and the colors (so I would put a green word on like every 3rd line, then some light gray words sprinkled in between that, etc.

    Not sure if this is making any sense or helping at all, but I hope it does:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love your christmas frames. Thanks for telling us how to do them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the window treatments- the space doesn't look too dark at all to me! Tres chic!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the how-to! I'll try going at it with Microsoft Publisher. I do monthly newsletters with it for work, so I'm more familiar with it. I just need to figure out how to wrap text to fit the text boxes. =) And I'm excited about the graphic design aspect of it. I LOVE different fonts. It's so amazing how differently I can feel about a word depending on what it looks like. I'm the same with books. If the font is crappy and too smushed looking, I can barely get through it even if it's quality literature.

    Glad you feel me on the rain thing. I see posts from people in Texas, Alabama, northern Cali.... and their sunshine looks so nice. And I'm just thinking about how my hanging flower pot died of overwatering. From. The. Rain. Egads!

    Also... (go Sox!) =)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Just came across your blog - very cute decorating ideas!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have a faaaaabulous blog! :) So glad to have found you!

    Susan @ www.peanutpetunia.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey Sarah! I'm so glad you left a comment directing me to your blog, it's beautiful, great job! I'll respond to your Q about Brin in my blog comments so that others can read it as well. Hope all is well!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love the Christmas quotes....I am a font freak and I love art like that! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love it and I too love the Christmas ones! Thanks for sharing the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This idea is very cute - Christmas ideas are always fun to see!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts