Watercolour wings

This is my 3rd attempt at making this little piece of art - I had to experiment with different watercolour papers until I found one that was smooth enough to bring out the detail of the swallowtail when embossed, but also thick enough to take the water for my luminarte paints.

I actually ended up using the back of the watercolour paper but the embossing still sank into a little more than I wanted but all the lovely detailed lines are still showing.  I then used shades of purples, pink, orange and yellow luminarte shimmer watercolours on the swallowtail and once that was dry I used the lovely soft blue called "northern lights" to create a background that gently faded away the further you get away form the butterfly.  Rather than making this into a card, I wanted to frame it, so I went with a sentiment that was everyday but uplifting.

I am going to enter it into the following challenges:

Moxie Fab's watercolour challenge - http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2013/04/the-wonder-of-watercolor-challenge.html

and Make it Mondays anything that flies challenge - http://mimchallegeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/anything-that-flies.html

and the Gift challenge Kath is running to celebrate the Special Edition of Paper Crafts "350 Cards and Gifts" http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2013/05/350-cards-gifts-week-gift-challenge.html