Saturday, March 12, 2011

What the Caterpillar Calls the End of the World...

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.. -Richard Bach

I adore Richard Bach. He wrote one of my favorite books of my childhood, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I loved anthropomorphic books like this and Pagoo. Having been a Dr. Doolittle type all my life, I know that life is precious, and all little creatures have feelings and personalities and different forms of expression that we should recognize and try to understand.

I saw a great story about some Lassie-style dolphins that saved a Doberman's life in Florida a few weeks ago - you can read about it here. Dolphins clearly have empathy, feel stress and have an understanding of danger to another species, sweet little animals.

If you've been watching the news this week, you've probably felt that same empathy and stress and fear and desire to help. The world gets smaller at moments like this and reminds us how little we are.

But it also reminds of how generous and kind and strong people can be. I'm sure in the coming days we will hear stories that will amaze us.

When I saw Eva's butterfly challenge, I thought - now here's a great artistic coincidence... There's no image better suited to illustrate hope than our little winged, transformy friends!
So I took out a Japanese book I found last year at Half Price Books, and rubbed Ballet Blue ink onto my Beautiful Wings Embosslit and zipped it through the Big Shot. I actually did two pages at the same time since they are so much thinner than cardstock, so now I have tons of pretty, printy butterflies. I love how each of the butterflies has a different pattern embossed on it.

I brayered another page with Summer Sun Ink for the background, and made the greeting with the sneak peek set - Four Frames - and the Decorative Label Punch. The greeting is from Voeux mignons.

I hope our friends in Japan can feel the butterfly effect of the thoughts and prayers of millions of people on our side of the Pacific.


36 comments:

  1. Yep - I need some Japanese books! This is lovely, Lydia :)

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  2. Lydia, this is such a beautiful card and your post is so touching, too! I love Richard Bach as well. Have you read Illusions from him? It's my favorite. Anyway, thank you sooo much for playing along and sharing this gorgeous card! Hugs..

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  3. What a gorgeous card Lydia!! Love the butterflies and the ribbon treatment is gorgeous!!

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  4. Lydia....so pretty!!! And LOVE the print butterflies....I am going to have to try that.....hugs, Katrina

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  5. Love how you cut and embossed those butterflies! What a sweet sentiment to go with!
    phornschu@hotmail.com
    www.1pamperedstamper.blogspot.com

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  6. What a wonderful idea to use a Japanese book as your papers!! What a lovely card!!

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  7. What a BEAUTIFUL card and post, Lydia. Very cool to create the card in Japanese. I love your little blue butterflies! :-)

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  8. beautiful butterfly card, lydia. i love the colours you chose. I also like Richard Bach a lot and Jonathan is a great book! TFS Janna

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  9. Gooooooooo Lydia! Love the yellow with the blue butters!

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  10. i was staring at your card as i was trying to read your words, and wondering how you made the japanese characters flow onto the butterflies! beautiful card, wonderful words.

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  11. So gorgeous - it's like a little French kitchen on a card! Love the color combo!

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  12. Such a pretty card and a beautifully written post.

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  13. Beautiful card and beautiful post. Yes, so much fear and caring for the people of Japan.

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  14. Lydia,
    Thank you so much for this card and your remembering Japan. My entire family is out there (they are safe, thank goodness) so this means alot!

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  15. I'll have to check out books from the library from Bach, I bet my children would love them as well.

    What a lovely lovely card, I could stare at it for hours.

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  16. wow! Lydia! a beautiful butterfly masterpiece.

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  17. Lydia, that is one gorgeous card.
    Hugs and smiles

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  18. Fabulous card! Love all those 3D butterflies! TFS!

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  19. Wow, what a beautiful butterfly card!

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  20. WOW.. just stunning. my favourite colours. and your butterflies just pop off your card. love the colours.

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  21. Truly an amazing card! gorgeous!

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  22. Wow, this is gorgeous. I love how the blue butterflies look against the yellow. Lydia, I like how you used the Japanese book on your card. Prayers going out to all those in Japan.

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  23. This is gorgeous - well said!!

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  24. Oh this is Beautiful!
    This should be framed!! :)

    Thank you for sharing!
    Blessings and Hugs,
    Mary

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  25. What a work of art! Very lovely,TFS...

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  26. What a wonderfully thoughtful card! I am sure anyone who sees it will feel the love put into it! Beautiful!

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  27. WOW! What a beautiful card! I love that background!!!! So unique! And w/ those butterflies, oh my! What a statement this card makes!

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  28. This is SO pretty! I love the colors you used! And that crepe is fabulous!

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  29. awe, j'adore le francais! et les papillons!

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