Nice Bugs

These ATCs are from a "nice bugs" swap. We were to do one each of a ladybug, a butterfly and a dragonfly. True to my usual MO, I did more than the required number and then chose the ones I liked the most to send. The Ladybug Club was admittedly a little "cute". That's not my normal style, but it's what goes on in my imagination when I look at it that makes me like it so much. I used some of my son's craft materials to make it and my only intent was to have fun with it, which I did. When I stuck those little wooden bugs on there they looked like they were having some sort of clandestine meeting down in the grass. It made me think of Victorian ladies clubs, so I thought they needed their own club name. I thought about calling it "The Ladybug Luncheon", but that brought to mind images of these very ladylike bugs wearing their best hats and sipping tea while gorging themselves on aphid tea cookies and little aphid cakes. (I can't quite get that image out of my head, so it will likely become a drawing in the future! I keep imagining it as a Tim Burton-ish sort of cartoon in my head.) That thought reminded me of the "Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society" buttons and t-shirts. Now every time I look at those cute little ladybugs I can't help thinking of them as little tea sipping, aphid munching terrorists and it cracks me up. (Aren't you lucky! You get a tiny peek inside my warped mind when you read this blog!)

I LOVE the butterfly on the "Fresh Color" card. I handcolored it with oil pastels and really liked the way it turned out. It kept telling me it wanted a purple and green background. I wanted the background to be subdued so that it didn't compete with the butterfly. The dark purple rice paper was perfect behind the butterfly. It really made it stand out, but the design needed something more. I had some plastic "grass" dividers that my son and I saved from our sushi boxes, so I added one of those to the bottom. It looked a little too stark though, so I added some lighter grass strokes behind it with colored pencil and darker grass strokes on top of it with permanent marker. Better, but it *still* looked like it needed something else, so I added the "fresh color" sticker. It's the only element I'm not sure about, mainly because the texture of the plastic grass keeps it from looking as clean as I would like, but the overall card is pleasing even if it is a little less detailed than I usually like. Most of the cards I do with butterflies on them are only attached at the body and this one is no exception. It's wings are actually lifted off the background when it's not flattened by the scanner.

And last but not least is the dragonfly. It's my favorite of the these cards because this is the way I see dragonflies in our summer garden. Our house is on a lake so during the summer months we see LOTS of dragonflies and damselflies flitting about the gardens. They are so fast that when I look up from my gardening all I usually see is an outline silhouetted by the sun. I've been experimenting with various cut paper arts lately, so I assembled the dragonfly from various cut papers. I placed it on a background that was created on turquoise rice paper with a textured rubbing plate and a yellow oil pastel. I added a little white pencil and gold ink to accentuate the yellow rays and then decided that if I added any more detail I was going to lose the effect I was going for so I stopped. I had already lost a little of the silhouette effect by adding the gold ink. The thing that doesn't come through on the scan is the fact that there is a glittery element to the card. The thin rice paper I used for the wings has flecks of silver and the gold ink catches the light as the card is moved. It really adds to the overall feel of the card and reminds me of the glittery, flitting creatures in my gardens.