Clear Scraps Summer Blog Hop - Butterfly Suncatcher

Ready for summer?!!  I know I am!!  Today is Day ONE of the Clear Scraps Summer Crafting Blog Hop!  Three days of summer crafting inspiration and tutorials and PRIZES!!!  Today, you'll need to hop by the CLEAR SCRAPS Blog, plus Rita and Leah's blogs.  Leave a comment here and at each blog for your chance to win!  Plus visit Clear Scraps on Facebook for additional chances to win!

To get you started with some summer crafting, I've created a Clear Scraps acrylic sun catcher.  Perfect to add a little pop of color in your garden.  This design is actually an improvement to a sun catcher I did about a year ago - using my Sizzix Big Shot and Tim Holtz Butterfly Die to cut butterfly shapes from used CD's.  I really like the fact that I can recycle used CDs, but there were two problems with the CD butterflies.  #1 - the shiny coating sometimes splinters off during the cutting process, and #2 the CD plastic is too brittle to bend to give the butterflies dimension.  Clear Scraps to the rescue!!

Did you know you can use dies to cut Clear Scraps?  It is a great way to make your own acrylic embellishments for your projects!  I always keep sheets of 12x12 Clear Scraps acrylic on hand to use in various projects, so I started by cutting one of these sheets in smaller pieces to run though the Sizzix and die cut.  For the sun catcher, I cut 6 CD butterflies and 6 Clear Scraps butterflies.  While I had everything out I also cut some small flower shapes in the CS acrylic.  These are always handy to have on hand. HINT:  save the pieces that the die cuts come out of - they can be used as little stencils!

After removing the protective plastic from the butterflies I daubed them with blue and purple alcohol inks.

Then I carefully bent the wings back.  I love the way these all look together!  They are inspiring more future projects!!

Assemble the sun catcher by placing three of the CD butterflies shiny side down on the table, spaced approximately where you'd like them on the wire.  Put a generous dot of Beacon Zip-dry glue in the center of the butterfly.  Place clear beading wire or fishing wire so that the wire runs through the glue.  Place another CD Butterfly, shiny side up, on top of the wire/glue to sandwich the wire.  Use another dab of Zip-dry to glue a Clear Scraps butterfly on top of the CD butterfly.  One that glue is dry, flip the butterflies over and glue another Clear Scraps butterfly to the back side.  Tie a glass or crystal bead at the bottom of the wire as a weight.

Now how easy was that?!!

Enjoy the Blog Hop!  and Happy Summer Crafting!!

KC