Beautiful Butterflies

Even though Spring has officially arrived in the US, it hasn't been very warm yet. The the mere mention of the word "Spring" conjures up all kinds of images in one's mind; flowers, blooming trees, baby birds and eventually (along with the warmer temperatures) the butterflies will come.

I love butterflies.  I captured this photo more than a decade ago at at Ranch in Kansas that some friends of ours own.  You see that background?  That's real Bokeh, folks!  And just FYI — it's pronounced bow-kuh not bow-kay. *wink*

Anyway - I love butterflies and I've been to my fair share of Butterfly Gardens & Pavilions to take photographs.  But they will never top this one experience of being in a natural environment and capturing this image.  I can still remember my delight as I knew I had captured what I intended.  I tried to show it to my husband on the little screen at the time but he didn't get it until I could download and show him at home.

I could never paint a butterfly as lifelike as this image and I don't even try although I've seen some pretty fantastic colors on butterflies at some of the pavilions I've been to.  I even have pictures of turquoise and brown ones in my collection.

When I was grade school aged, our house was next to a field or lot that was empty.  We would play all day long out there all summer long making forts in the tall grass or catching butterflies and dusk never failed to bring the fireflies with it.  Those are the childhood memories I treasure with some of my brothers. Seriously, four younger brothers is mostly a pain.  There were five of us kids all pretty close together in age and then one more came along probably just when my mom thought she was finished having babies.

For the first card, I used the Stampendous Pen Patterned Butterflies along with the coordinating die for these cards.  I started by stamping the largest image in Versamark and heat embossing it with Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder on a piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.  I stamped the Papertrey Ink Graceful Greetings "Hello" to intersect with the butterfly's antennae.  The butterfly was watercolored using Distress Markers in Weathered Wood, Victorian Velvet, Aged Mahogany, Seedless Preserves, and Abandoned Coral.  Once I had the butterfly all painted and dry, I carefully cut the butterfly from the panel using the coordinating die.  Next I used the same die to cut a piece of Fun Foam to put under the butterfly image and give it some stable dimension.  Then I started assembling everything back together. Starting with a horizontal Berry Sorbet Top Folding Note Card, I attached the negative to the card base.  I attached the fun foam to the back of the butterfly using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I stacked several acrylic blocks and a paperweight on top to keep it flat while the glue dried.

Since some of the gold embossed outline was also on the negative as well as the positive piece, I needed to make sure that I had it lined up correctly when I adhered it to the card base.  It was easy to make it fit right in.  I also like it that the Berry Sorbet Cardstock peeks out from underneath.  Using a Quickie Glue Pen, I added a deep purple glitter to the spots on the butterfly wings.  You can't really see it in this photo, but it adds a super wow factor.  Glitter is another one of those supplies that I have that I'm trying to use.

This card uses Weathered Wood, Aged Mahogany, Mermaid Lagoon & Wilted Violet Distress Markers.  I didn't use the negative for this card because I wanted a vertical top folding card.  The background panel is made from Simon Says Stamp Surf Blue Cardstock.  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Graceful Greetings Stamp Set.  There are coordinating dies available.  I used the same purple glitter (Recollections Brand) and Quickie Glue Pen for the spots on this butterfly.  A few sequins finished off both of these cards.

I'll be entering this card in several challenges:  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Beautiful Butterflies", the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Make It Girlie", The Paper Players Challenge "Butterflies", Stamping Royalty Challege #326 and Curtain Call "Keep it Simple".  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you'll come back often.