Bounty of Beautiful Butterflies

[cyndy225]

Hi Everyone!

I've been taking pictures of butterflies all spring and have a few from previous years, and I figured it was time I put them to good use. I started with printing the butterflies on transparencies to let them be double sided and let the light shine through like ClearCutCrafts2007's awesome butterflies (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=218597.0). I liked the way they came out but they missed a lot of the details, so I also printed them out on photo paper and used both!







There's also a dragonfly in there just for fun. All of the photos are mine, including the mushrooms. The backgrounds are paint samples and the items are random odds and ends from my collections. I wanted a mix of nature and shiny. Pinokeeo will recognize a couple of items that she sent me (Thanks again!). If anyone has any questions about what they see or if anyone wants to know what the different types of butterflies are, feel free to ask (I'll just be slow to reply, vacation weekend!)

Some closeups of my favorites:
The monarch:
I put the transparency over the photo on this one, gave it a cool effect that didn't work as well on the others.


The Buckeye:
The photo caught some stray hot glue, shhhh, I'll fix that later.


The Tiger Swallowtail:
The prettiest butterfly I've seen this season, I think.


I've finished all of the squares, but I have one more step planned. I'm going to put magnets on the backs of all the squares and on canvases (that's what they're lying on now) so I can put them on the wall, but still move them around and change the arrangement.

And just for fun: The monarch wasn't spreading its wings enough for me to get a really good shot from the back, but it was still beautiful and this is a much better picture than the one I used in the project.


This is my first challenge, so we'll see how I stack up. And don't forget to vote for your favorite!

[nicolatte]

 UMM, ALLLL of them are my favorite!!! Seriously though!!! Holy cow, those are sooo awesome!! I LOVVE butterflies, love love them, and these are sooo gorgeous, I want them all!

 But really, since you're making me... I think the one with the hot glue on it is my favorite!!

[Belladune]

beautiful butterflies!  great use of the transparent paper..  I would never have thought of that.....

[longtimegeek]

wow - these are fantastic.

[Casstasstrophe]

These are seriously beautiful, and in my opinion, the full spirit of the contest. You took an original photograph and made something truly original and beautiful. Great job.

[Velvetdragon]

Wow gorgeous! What kind of printer did you use? Where did you get the transparencies? I wish we had such beautiful butterflies come to our yard so I could take their pictures.

[cyndy225]

Thanks to all of the nice comments. I ended up putting velcro on the backs to put them on the canvases to hang up. It works better than the magnets would have.

Wow gorgeous! What kind of printer did you use? Where did you get the transparencies? I wish we had such beautiful butterflies come to our yard so I could take their pictures.

It's all about the butterfly bush! They just can't get enough!
I don't remember exactly where I got the transparencies, I had them around from a presentation. So, either from a college school supply store, Staples, or Walmart. And the printer is my dad's. Some sort of Canon designed specifically for photos, I believe.