Beautiful Butterflies

There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, "What if I fall?" Oh but my darling, what if you fly? Erin Hanson

This is the week we keep our Tiny Pages Art cards....and the theme was flying.  

I found this Beautiful Butterflies book at a thrift store...and snapped it right up!  It has nice thick creamy pages...and I knew all along I was going to cut out the butterflies and moths...and use the rest of the pages for printing and collage. 

I used the first butterflies on my "flying" card.

Because I am mostly working right on the card...I've had a few flops. But inspired by Dotty who often uses earlier art as an underpainting for new work....decided to just start layering on the discarded piece.

I don't have a photograph of the underpainting...but I took a gelli print reject and happily scraped and splattered acrylic inks and added bits of gold.

I'm actually quite fond of the textured background...so feel a bit empowered to do this more often. I certainly have a lot of rejected art to work with!  

I kept the back a little more monochromatic with just hints of the other colors....but of course added another butterfly.  Or maybe this is a moth.  I'll share the other "flying" cards as I get photos!

I hadn't looked at the actual hardcover of the book until today...and it's FABULOUS! And it validated my color choice for the back of my card my little gold accents! 

 

Oh...how I love Beautiful Butterflies with a little bling!