Folklore, superstition and old wives tales

My Mum used to live by a number of old wives tales and she totally believed in them. I take most of them with a pinch of salt.

When I saw that the theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show was precisely this I had a think about the ones Mum used to say. We were never allowed to put shoes on the table; breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck she used to say; a bird that flew into the house meant a death; it is supposedly good luck to find a 4 leaf clover - and I used to spend hours as a small child looking for one; spilled some salt - then throw it over your left shoulder; we could never cut our nails on a Friday or a Sunday because it was bad luck; if you have an itchy right hand you were to soon come into money, but if it was the left hand then you would be parting with it; and if you dropped a knife on the floor you had to stand on it and she would never ever receive a brooch (or something sharp) without giving some money in return.

Anyway - I used to love the nature ones - a patch of blue sky before noon meant you would see the sun for the rest of the day, in the autumn it was good luck to catch 3 leaves from the trees before they hit the ground, three butterflies seen together would bring good luck and if the first butterfly you saw in the year was white you would have good luck all year.

Wo I could go on, but here is my take on the white butterfly tale.

Inspiration has been drawn from -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Old wives tales
Grungy Monday - TH colour blocking technique
Craft Barn - using gesso
Just for fun - make a postcard (mine is 6 x 4 ins)

Creating and making-
I made 3 different butterflies, all stamped onto fabric, one without gesso, one stamped into wet gesso and one stamped onto dry gesso to choose the one I wanted - chose the dry gessoed one and highlighted it with promarkers.

Stamped butterflies on wet and dry gesso

Bottom butterfly stamped straight onto the fabric and highlighted with promarkers.

Background colour blocked using Tim's technique - see Here. Edged with DI,

splashed with water and heat dried.

Overstamped with DIs, edges stamped with gesso finished by painting edges with crackle paint.

Trinket pin and bird pinned to the butterfly.

Metal flower primed with gesso and then crackle painted, mini rosette with additional small flower also gessoed and gem added. String, pin and ticket added.

A close up of the buterflies.

Supplies -
Studio - gesso
Idealology - metal foliage, adornments bird, trinket pin
TH - mini paper rosette die
Stamps - TH nature's moments, urban grunge, papillon. La Blanche swirl
DIs - bundled sage, tattered rose, antique linen, pumice stone
Adirondack dye pads - lettuce, cranberry, caramel
Distress crackle paint - picket fence, old door

Well I hope you saw a white butterfly this year - do you know what I bet that this colour is the first of the season anyway!..

Enjoy your weekend. I am off to Sue's 50th birthday party this afternoon and at the moment the sun is shining, let's hope it stays that way.

Take care and thanks for dropping in.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox