Butterflies -- God's Flying Flowers

Oh boy, do I love butterflies! They truly are like flying flowers. When I saw the cover of the October issue of Scrap & Stamp I just fell in love with the 3D butterfly wall art. It was just one of those "gotta have it" things so I spent a morning stamping and cutting out butterflies to make my own wall art. Mine is smaller than the one I saw in the magazine, only 8x8", but I'm thrilled with the finished project. Um mm, but now where am I going to hang it? The base is actually a canvas for oil painting which I covered with scrapbook paper. Using 12 colors of card stock, I stamped a small, medium, and large butterfly on each color with a set of Basic Grey clear stamps, using black dye ink. Yes -- I did cut out 36 butterflies! But since I didn't use all 36, I have several left over for another project. The edges of the butterflies were inked with coordinating colors of Tim Holtz distress inks. To give them a 3D look, several different thicknesses of pop dots and mounting tape were used to get the desired effect. I don't know how anything so pretty could be so easy to make. If you decide to make one, let me know if you need some help or have any questions.

Butterflies are one of God's especially beautiful creations. That butterfly eggs hatch into little caterpillars is strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful. Why don't they hatch into baby butterflies? Anything you plant from seed comes up like the plant it came from. Fish eggs hatch into little fish. Human eggs develop into baby humans. Yet it pleased our Creator to make butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars. The Caterpillar grows, sheds it skin a couple of time, takes a week or two nap, and finally wakes up as a butterfly. Did I already say strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful!!!

I think we are like butterflies -- every shape and size, different colored, unique, and beautiful to God. When we invite God into our lives, He changes us, we emerge, spread our wings . . . and fly. The minute we know that God is within us, there is nothing that can hold us back from living the life that He wants us to live, according to His plan. If you are living a life that doesn't feel right, you are like a butterfly that cannot spread it's wings. If you feel something holding you back, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you to the path that God meant for you to walk. So think of yourself as a butterfly that God created. Isn't it wonderful to know that there is no other butterfly on this earth just like YOU.

God bless and keep you as you find your way and spread your beautiful wings and fly!

Annie