Winged Wonders

I was out in the garden yesterday, enjoying the beautiful weather, when some movement caught my eye in the new island bed we built earlier this year.

When I looked closer, I saw this little skipper butterfly on the lovely pink Marguerite Daisies. I grabbed the camera and bent and twisted every which way to get a photo of it -- it's in the middle of the island bed and I didn't want to trample anything, or spook the butterfly, plus of course, getting it in focus was a necessity!

In an attempt to transform the photo from "ordinary" to "artistic" I originally tried a couple of techniques to add a pen and ink overlay to this image and give it a sumi-e effect.  But realized the image is a little to busy for that to work well.

Since I had already created a layer with the dry brush filter and liked how it looked, I decided to go with that effect for the image.

The detail really shows up nicely on this poster, but I'll be adding it to other products as well - I'm thinking mouse pads, iPad sleeves etc.  Lots of possibilities :-)

Pink Marguerite Daisies Poster by 3DDesignsByJayne
View other Pink flowers Posters

I myself garden for wildlife and butterflies, so they are near and dear to my heart.  I'm certainly going to take an afternoon to go through iPhoto on my computer and see what other photos I can use in my designs.

In the meantime, here are some items from my fellow artists and designers at Zazzle, each featuring beautiful butterflies and flowers.

I love this pillow, featuring purple butterflies on a branch by LorrieM - the color is just lovely and would look great on a sofa or in the bedroom.

Purple Butterflies on a Branch American MoJo by LorrieM
View more throw pillows.

One of my favorite butterflies is the Monarch.  Our garden is filled with tropical milkweed, the host plant of the Monarch butterfly and each year I keep on the look out for them and the eggs they lay which then grow into caterpillars.

This great laptop sleeve by Butterfliesarebloomin features a regal monarch butterfly on some milkweed. 

The King of Butterflies -- The Monarch Butterfly by Butterflysarebloomin
View more laptop accessories at zazzle.com.

I've never been lucky enough to see the metamorphosis from chrysalis to  butterfly, but this lovely mouse pad by WildBliss reminds us that "Without change, there would be no butterflies."

Without Change Butterflies Mousepad by WildBliss

Being a gardener, one of my weekly chores is to make sure weeds aren't taking over my garden.  The quotation on this mouse pad is particularly appropriate - it reminds me that even weeds are beautiful flowers if I look at them through joyful eyes :-)

Flower is a Weed Butterfly Mousepad by WildBliss

I love this customizable card from Memory Lane.  It's vintage-looking and you can customize it for any occasion and any recipient.  Gardeners, nature lovers or any one would appreciate this card for birthday and other occasions.

Butterflies in Flight - Customize by Memory_Lane

I'm sure there are a million and one other items that have been designed using images of these Winged Wonders we see around us.  I'm going to create some more items with my Pink Daisy image and then I'm going to look for some more butterfly pics in my iPhoto collection.

Happy Earth Day!