Today it is cold and sleeting so I'm working on an indoor art project. I'm gluing photos of butterflies and their host plant to tiles to make a matching game.
I frequently volunteer at plant related events either with Wild Ones, Bring Conservation Home, Master Naturalists, or STL Plant Swap. At these events it is nice to have a game to engage visitors at your booth. I have seen caterpillar butterfly and also butterfly host plant matching games before. However, since it is usually the caterpillar that is the one that is host plant specific I thought it would make more sense to have the matching game include the caterpillar and plant. So I have included two photos of the insect and two of the plant so that everyone can see the caterpillar, butterfly, flower, and leaves.
I picked out a 4 x 4 set of tiles, 16 total, so I can have 4 sets of butterfly/plant interactions. There are many specialist caterpillars to choose from so I limited my list to host plants that are good garden plants. Then I picked 4 that I had nice eye catching photos of. The final 4 were the Monarch and milkweed, of course, the black swallow tail and golden Alexander, spicebush swallow tail and spicebush, and promethea silkmoth and sassafras. It was difficult to decide which 4 to choose but I guess I can add more tiles in the future. Although, 16 tiles might be hard enough.
I glued the photos to the tiles using mod podge. This should make them last for a long time. If it rains at the event I wont have to worry about them being ruined. One problem with the other matching games was wind blowing the pieces away. These tiles will stay put and can even be used as paper weights for other items.
I'm excited to take my new game to events next spring. I hope to see you there and you can try your luck at matching the tiles.
And I know just who's cards were blown by the wind! 😉 Your solution is BRILLIANT!!