I received my first order of rice paper in the mail yesterday and promptly went to work on these. I don't have a food printer, so I drew these all by hand (about 2.5 hours to make 12 of them). they are not perfect by any means, but I'm REALLY happy with how they came out and can't wait to use them on projects!

Here they are before I added the bodies.

And here they are after I put the bodies on. I could not get the royal icing black, but it looks ok w/the dark grey.

They came out great! What template did you use for the butterflies?

They look awesome!!!! Love the colors!

GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hand drawn!? You're gooood!!!!

Those are amazing! Good job.

They are great you don't need a printer haha.

It was time consuming, and you have to be careful with the food color pens, but yes, they are hand drawn/colored. I used to paint/draw as a teen. My dad tells me all the time I've moved my artistic talents to my cakes. thanks. I'm really happy with them. My husband (before the bodies were put on) this morning was in awe just from the flat things! I'm going to have so much fun with these!

LOL. Yes, but a printer would make the process go so much faster!

Chris, there are some templates on this site somewhere and I downloaded that.

Great job. You mention the royal icing was not black enough. If you color it brown first then add black. Then you will need to let it sit and it sits it will get darker.

Keep up the good work.

Your butterflies are gorgeous. Great job!!

Angie

They are BEAUTIFUL!!!!! You did a great job. I'm jealous, I couldn't free hand anything that pretty.

Nice Sheila! I wouldn't even think about trying that yet!

Your flutterby's are lovely. Amazing.

Nice!

It looks like you printed them out! Perfect!

I have never seen that done before how did you do that. Beautiful!!!

they are amazing

GREAT JOB ON DRAWING THE BUTTERFLIES. WHAT DID YOU DRAW THEM ON?

Thanks everyone. I've been DYING to try these since I first saw them posted. But have not been able to find a single place to purchase the wafer paper. I finially broke down and bought some online and I'm really glad I did. I can totally see possibilities coming from these little critters

Beautiful job on these, they looks so real, so pretty!
Hugs Squirrelly

Thanks Squirrelly and Sory.

The imperfections are minimal, but, they are there. But like my MIL tells me, nothing in nature is perfect. There are imperfections in every flower, etc if you look for it. I've always been hypercritical of my own work. Still working on that

I'm designing cup cakes for vday with the butterfly's right now. Heart shaped cup cakes with a heart cut out fondant underlay for each one, then a pansy and a butterfly on top of each. My oldest daughter is having a party at school friday, so I've started baking tonight (hence the late hour). I need to get 40 of these done by Friday morning and I've got a scout meeting to run tomorrow too.

y daughters 16th birthday is coming and she wants a hawaiian theme party...her cake non traditional...she likes being different...any ideas... please help

SheilaF,

They are fantastic

Forgot to ask how your daughter's cake decorating class went back in the summer.

Those look fantastic! I'm glad to know you can draw these with food color markers; as I don't have a printer either. I've been wanting to buy some rice paper and play; your butterflies are inspiration for me now!

Wow - they're beautiful! I bought some preprinted last year from sugarcraft and haven't gotten the nerve to make them - let alone freehand them!!! Great job!

Thanks MrsMissey for posting that link. I was to tired to search for it myself! LOL.

Stephanie214, her class went ok. It did not cover as much as we'd hoped, so she really learns more by watching and helping me, but she got to decorate one cake using the star tip. If you look in my photos, you'll see her science project. She did an edible cell project. I helped with stacking the cakes and frosting them so it'd be smooth. And I put the two layers of fondant on for the cell wall and cell membrane, but she did all the rest. She got docked 1 point for not having free floating ribosomes in the cytoplasm (used cake sprinkles for those) but she still got an A+. her teacher has NEVER recieved a 3D cell project admission and she was very shocked

The trick to remember with drawing them yourself is to start with your lighter colors. If you start with the black, it'll bleed when you fill in all the other colors. I copied the template from the link posted above onto a sheet of paper (but just one butterfly design per page) so I had quite a few on a page. Then taped that to a cake board. Then put saran wrap over the cake board and the put the rice wafer paper over that only slightly taping two corners in place. Then filled in the yellow on all of them. Then the orange and going over the top orange area w/red (since I didn't have a color to make the deeper orange). Then carefully did the outlining in the wings with the black, then the boarders. It was time consuming, and it doesn't go all the way through to the other side of the wafer paper (so the back side is really light). The colors are really dull too, but when you brush the clear cake gel over them, they really get bold. And of course I put pixie dust over for some sparkle (and dropped it on the one, so that has a LOT of sparkling to it). I spent all last night baking the heart cup cakes, so I'll start decorating those tonight and will hopefully have a photo to post in my gallery by Friday.