The Butterfly Project

At the beginning of the year I told you that my One Little Word for 2012 is BUTTERFLY. Several of you left lovely comments, and one that really stood out was from Fiona. She wrote: "What a lovely word to choose for the year. It made me think of this project and I wondered if you knew about it."

I hadn't heard of it before, and when I followed her link I was dumb-founded when I read the large caption:

1,500,000

innocent children perished in the Holocaust.

One and a half MILLION innocent children?

~gulp~

I hadn't known that there was a museum in Texas dedicated to Holocaust victims, and they have a project organized to remember the 1,500,000 innocent children who lost their lives.

Check this out! The museum is collecting 1,500,000 handmade butterflies to create an exhibit. Can you imagine? 1,500,000 handmade butterflies?!?! The image alone is just magical in my mind.

Here's where we come in.

:o)

On my birthday this year I will be 51, and my goal is to collect 51 butterflies for this project. The specifics for the butterflies are on the website, as well as the address for mailing them to the museum. There's a slideshow running on the site with photos of butterflies that have been submitted, so if you need some inspiration go there and have a look.

If you'd like to participate, you may either send your butterfly to me before May 1 {my birthday}, or mail it directly to the museum {just please let me know you've sent it so I can count it in my goal}. The deadline for the project is December 31, 2012, and the display is set to be completed in the spring of 2014.

If you create a post with a photo of your butterfly, I would love to see it! Just leave a comment with a link here on my post. In the meantime, I will work on creating a button for the sidebar of my blog to link back to this post {wish me luck with that!}.

Specifics for butterflies are:
* This project may be completed by all ages as individuals or groups.
* Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches.
* Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional {flat} submissions are preferred.
* Glitter and all glitter-related products should not be used {Carrie!}.
* Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used.

So what do you think? Will you join me?

I can't wait to see what you'll come up with!
If you need some help with a butterfly template, here's a link to a few.

Remember: It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be there.

♥
Check out these posts from my lovely blog friends who have made butterflies:
Rinda - pink and blue and mosaic
{UK} Deb
Helena
Miriam
Irene
Alison
Amanda
Jo C.
My Mom
Stephanie
Karen
Cheri
Annie
Carrie

{If you have created a post sharing your butterfly and I have missed it,
please let me know so I can add you to the list!}