Yesterday, I posted about my Kansas Love DIY project (seen here) but what I didn't mention is that I have some more DIY projects up my sleeve in the near future. After browsing Pinterest for some ideas, I headed out to my local Michael's craft store with some 40% off coupons and bought some supplies.

The first item I knew I wanted to buy was a black shadowbox. And what do you know, Michael's had all frames and shadowboxes 40% off plus I had a bonus coupon for 25% more off. Score! (I also bought a two pack of 12x12in canvases that I have some ideas in the works for. Stay tuned on that!)

Here's the black shadowbox I have to work with. It's 8x8in which I think is more suitable for setting somewhere vs. hanging on the wall. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure this would work well for a wall of frames though.


So now that I have the perfect shadowbox, I looked at my inspiration pictures again...






I am a daily reader of Young House Love so when I saw that Sherry made a butterfly shadow box, I knew I wanted to do something similar. Sherry did a great job. The white box with her built-ins matches so well. However, I didn't like that the butterflies were specimen looking. I didn't think that look would work very well for my bedroom or dorm room.

Therefore, I did some more searching on Pinterest and came across that second picture above. The butterflies are gorgeous. Looks like they are just punched out of scrapbook paper. I loved that idea of simplicity vs. specimens. However, I didn't like that the butterflies are placed everywhere. I really liked Sherry's way of doing rows and columns.

Knowing what qualities I liked of both projects, I combined them together and came up with the idea of punching butterflies out of some paint chips I've had laying around. As you know from this post, I'm working on re-painting my room so I've had these paint chips on hand for awhile. I have decided on a color (Behr's Emerald Coast) so I decided my other swatches could be put to great use.


So now that I've rambled on so long that Blogger just  locked up on me, I'm going to take that as a sign to wrap this post up. So here's what my final project looks like. Drum roll please....



The shadow box ties in with my current bedroom colors pretty well, but it will look even better once I re-do my room in teal. Or maybe this beauty will go with me to college. I'm undecided for now (no pun intended). This project only took me about an hour and was pretty cheap. I'm thinking I might make a couple of these as Christmas gifts. And now for the budget breakdown...