Ippity Butterfly Extravaganza!

My dear friend, Eva, got a brilliant idea to have a blog hop focused on butterflies - not on a company or a color palette, but a theme. I love theme hops! Eva - thank you so much for doing this!

So - if you've just stopped by because your one of my adoring fans (insert laugh track here) - you might want to go over to Eva's blog and hop through all the sites. There are chances to win some wonderful prizes (thank you to all who are providing these goodies!), and tons of inspiration!

You know I have a few weaknesses: Ippity and Sweet Pea Stamps, Spellbinder's dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, lots of texture, steampunk anything, and coloring. Wow - I managed to get all of that into this one card:

{click to enlarge}

I adore this luna moth inspired stamp created by Brigid Ashwood. The sentiment is from ippity - Just Wanted to Say. I know you'll want more details so here's a close up.

I've colored the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with Odorless Mineral Spirits. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but all the gearing, support bars and pin-striping is done with metallics.

I was blessed in my career as a biologist to have some very special butterflies in my care. I got to spend days exploring their biology, and captured the first photograph of mating behavior for the Diana Fritillary butterfly. One of my favorite projects was crafting a neglected landscape into the perfect habitat for this creature, and the other butterflies, plants and animals that share that habitat. Warm fuzzies here.

Ok - you've got several places to hop along to, and I do hope these flighty creatures can brighten your day. Spring is coming!

Hop on over to Sylvia's blog for a *gorgeous* butterfly project! You'll love it!


If you're here for the {ippity} blog hop, head over to Carole's blog!

Cheers!
♥ky