The Majesty of Monarch Butterflies

When I'm not working at my day job, or working on my digital art and now pastel painting projects, I like to garden for wildlife.

My garden is registered as a Monarch Waystation and I've got lots of tropical milkweed, as that is the host plant of the Monarch butterfly, and the only plant that Monarch caterpillars will eat.

I was in the garden this weekend when I saw a Monarch butterfly flitting around.  I grabbed my camera, determined to get a photograph of it.

When I looked at the photograph full size on my computer, I could hardly believe my luck! Not only had I captured the butterfly, but right next to it on the same plant, there was a healthy Monarch caterpillar, munching away on a leaf!

I edited the photo by blending it with some texture for a more painterly effect and I'm very happy with how it came out.  It's been added to several items in my store, including this iPad sleeve.
 

Monarch Butterfly and Caterpillar iPad Sleeve by 3DDesignsByJayne
Check out more Monarch butterfly iPad Sleeves at Zazzle
 

There are lots of Monarch butterfly designs on Zazzle, so I'm going to showcase just a few of them.

I love the black and orange of the Monarch butterfly against the beautiful purple of the asters in this mousepad from CardsbyCarole.

Mousepad Monarch Butterfly on Purple Asters by CardsByCarole

This card from the very aptly named Butterflysarebloomin is made more dramatic by the way the background is black and white but the butterfly and flower are in color.

Madam Monarch Butterfly Greeting Card by Butterflysarebloomin
View more Butterflies are blooming Cards at zazzle.com

My final choice, among the myriad of Monarch designs on Zazzle, is this great bumper sticker from GardenDelightsArts which urges people to plant milkweed, to save the Monarch.  I need to get one of these bumper stickers myself!

Save monarch butterflies - Bumper Sticker by GardenDelightsArts
Make your own bumper sticker online at zazzle.com

Now it's your turn.  If your a designer on Zazzle and you have products in your store featuring Monarch butterflies, you are invited to your links in the Linky Tool below:

Use Option 1 in the Link Widget on the page of the Zazzle product/design you'd like to add. It will show up below as a small thumbnail and when clicked on, will link directly to your product.

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!