Fairies, Flowers and Flutterbies... :)

Hey bloggers!! :)

Hope you’re all okay and having a good week so far- I had a slow weekend again with little energy but managed to make a card from an image I’d coloured on Monday which made me feel better... well happier at least, if also achier and more exhausted but it had to be done!!lol 

This one was inspired by a combination of challenges- it began with a DoCrafts forum challenge to make a LOTV card that was ‘Pink and Girly with plenty of embellishments’, then came the LOTV blog challenge to ‘Say it with flowers’... nice and compatible, I thought :) Then I saw the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight was to make your own backing papers- be that digi, by stamping, etc.- and that gave me the push to make some more spring-like digi papers of my own, as I’ve been thinking I should for a while since I’ve been missing using the papers I made for Xmas!! :) I had spent rather a lot of Sunday afternoon looking at free font sites- think I’m officially a turning into a font junkie!!lol- and found some lovely butterfly dingbat fonts, which seemed like the perfect thing for spring-y papers and this was what came of all those ideas:

I used my simply gorgeous LOTV fairy stamp for the first time- thought I should try and ink up the rest of the last ones I ordered before the new ones arrive... it truly is an addiction!! ;) - with ‘the out of the box’ technique (which I think looks so much better with the Nestie shape embossed, too- seems to make the cut lines far less noticeable) and then my Blossom Nesties for the mat and to make the flowers... just to really get into the spirit of the LOTV challenge!! :)

The full list of materials went something like this:

• Gorgeous LOTV stamped image- Garden of Wishes, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black
• Promarkers to colour: Dress- Fuchsia and Blossom (top layer), Amethyst and Fuchsia (under layer), Amethyst and Cerise (flowers and trim) ; Wings- Amethyst, Fuchsia and Blossom ; Skin- Ivory, Satin, Blush and some Dusky Pink for cheeks, I think!! ; Hair- Cinnamon and Walnut ; Star- Marine, Soft Green and Pastel Green ; Ground- Soft Green and Satin  ; Sky- Pastel Blue drawn out with the brush tip of the new Copic Blender Pen I got as I thought the softer tip might make this kind of blending-to-nothing easier- think it will do the trick with a bit more practise!! :)
• Circle and Blossom Nesties
• My new Butterflies Digi Paper :)
• Fuchsia and Blossom PMs to colour mat layers (cut from copier paper)
• Tim Holtz Paper Distressing tool on all edges
• Scraps of already embossed and sanded Core’dinations Whitewash cardstock for flowers
• Marianne D Swirl Die- cut from copier paper and coloured with Soft Green PM
• Birthday Wishes sentiment from LOTV Girly sheet stamped with Brilliance Orchid ink (always forget this ink looks so pale on fine stamps but glad it’s not overpowering in the end :S )
• Dew drops attached with Stickles and Pale Purple Flat-backed Pearls
• Oodles of Crystal Stickles on the image and generally all over the edges of everything- was in so much pain squeezing the bottle- but you have to suffer for your art and all that!! ;) - and had to give up and come back later to finish it but it really brought the whole card to life!! I LOVE Stickles!!lol

And a couple of close-ups :)

You can’t see that much of the papers so, as it’s part of the challenge, I’ve taken a pic of the leftovers and some of the other colours I printed out, too :) I used a ‘splatter’ image from within my graphics program to get a bit more colour and interest behind the butterflies and I love that it makes the whole thing look a bit more random than the butterflies alone would :) I did have a bit of trouble getting things arranged on the page in the order (in terms of what appears to be on top) that I wanted- thought I was there but when I printed them, apparently not!!- so will go back and do some more tweaking but generally I’m happy... and the result kind of justifies the afternoon spent on font sites... right!?! ;D

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Lili of the Valley – Say It With Flowers (woohoo- that’s two out of the last three I’ve managed to enter!! :) ) :) ; Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight – Make Your Own Papers :) ; Wild Orchid Crafts – Dieing To Punch It Out :) ; Bunny Zoe’s Monthly Challenge – Happy Birthday with lots of pearls :) ; Cupcake Craft Challenge – Up In the Air with optional green :) ; Papertake Weekly – Triple Tastic :)

Thanks so much for all the comments on my last post and thank you all for sharing your preference of the two cards- I still don’t know which I prefer (think it’d come down to my mood at any given minute and the recipient, I guess!lol) but I found it really interesting to see what you thought... I think the Lilac one seems to have come out on top which just proves that even amongst cardmakers it’s not always all about how much you pile onto a card!! A liberating idea perhaps!?! :D Though I did enjoy this more embellished card for a change, too!!lol

Right, off to link up and leave you all in peace- sorry I’ve gone on so long again but it takes less energy to ramble than try to edit and be succinct at the mo’!! :S Thank you if you’ve taken the time to read it all and I hope you liked my card enough to feel it was worth it!! :)

ETA: I wrote most of this last night as my brain simply won't work well enough this early in the morning, but just have to add that my new release LOTVs dropped through my letterbox earlier... they are sooo gorgeous- I can't wait to have the energy to play with them!! :) :)  

hugs,