Butterfly ATCs: Lift Your Glistening Wings

The heARTist Trading group’s August 2013 ATC exchange theme is butterflies. What could be more summery and lovely? I have a soft spot in my heart for butterflies—my daughter’s middle name is Kamama, which means butterfly in Cherokee, so butterflies are extra magical for me. I also love the butterfly bush, which smells heavenly and really does attract tons of butterflies.

I made a number of collages in Photoshop, layering the images and using a soft eraser brush set at 50% to give some transparency. I combined various butterflies with flowers, old newsprint, textures and words. Many of the flowers, patterns, and butterflies were from The Graphics Fairy. http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ On several, I inserted (using an assortment of fonts) words from Society’s Child, an old favorite song by Janis Ian:  “…one of these days I’m gonna lift my glistening wings and fly…” On others I used the words kamama, papillion and mariposa, which all mean butterfly.

I had such a good time designing the Photoshop collages that I made about 30 ATC printouts, output on cardstock with a color laser printer. Going back to my tried and true favorite technique, I printed over them using white printmaking paint applied to some of my favorite commercial and hand-carved stamps. The edges got an aged effect by dipping them in distress ink and/or liquid chalk. Pictured are the 11 I liked best…but I can’t pick a favorite, can you?