Butterfly Time.and Some Wildflower Shares!

I wanted to make another card with this old favorite Hero Arts woodblock stamp called Heart Winged Butterfly, ca 2009.  I made this design a few times before, and I like the butterfly stamped over a small ditzy floral pattern.   Today's card is in honor of those pretty blue swallowtail butterfles.

supplies: unknown blue print design paper, Lawn Fawn  Spring Fling dotty yellow dp, Hero Arts Heart Winged Butterfly woodblock, Spellbinders Postage Edge die, sentiment from Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice sentiments, Altenew Lapis Lazuli enamel dots

The butterfly is stamped twice, fussy-cut, then stacked, securing them only along the body, which allows the wings to be bent upward.  Then I use the same floral print as my card edging.

My husband and I have been trying to walk everyday at a county park very close to us that used to be a 36 hole golf course.  When the owners retired, their kids decided to donate most of it to the park systems here, and over the years, the parks have sprinkled wild flowers everywhere.  Not a day goes by that we don't discover something new.  I take my phone with me, and if I don't know what the plant is, there's an identifier on the phone that usually does a pretty good job of telling me what it is.

Here are some flowers we've seen so far this year.

Dame's Rocket

This is a little lupine!  I was thrilled to find patches of these; I didn't know we had these in Ohio!  They're about 6 to 8 inches tall.

Spiderwort

A tree swallow.  These birdhouses have been placed all over the property and, though we've seen a few bluebirds, this is what we see most often.  Look at that gorgeous irridescent blue!

According to my identifier, these are foxglove beardtongue.  There are great swaths of these in several areas.  

Just in the last few weeks, coneflower, butterfly weed and milkweed have been opening.

The bees were all over these today and they smell wonderful!  AND we've seen several deer now and again.  No fawns yet, though. 

Right now the park has 3 trails, some using the old cart paths from the golf course in places, augmented with mown grass paths and gravel ones, and sprinkled with woods, all going up hill and down dale!  We are SO lucky to have this!  You'll be seeing more pics going forward.