A Little Spring Sprite

Well, the warmth thing just didnt work out...it snowed last night and today, big time! During rush hour it was almost white-out conditions. Luckily alot of it melted as the day went on but I still spent most of the day inside. On the plus side though, I got to do some stamping!

I still keep finding fun things I can do with my fairies...the scale of them is so perfect for alot of my other images. (Sadly, this was only a happy accident and not intentional, lol) Today, I paired a fairy with the sprout from the 'Thought I'd bug you" set. as I made this card though, I thought through some other possiblities like, a fairy riding on the "Pond Friends" turtle's back, or a fairy flying with the dragonfly from that same set. The lizard, the ducky and the snail also hold possibilities as companions for the fairies. Anyway, here is the card I came up with today:

First, I colored the fairy (with pencils & gamsol), added a bit of shine to the wings with a clear Sakura gel glitter pen and cut him out. Then, I stamped the sprout on River Rock card stock from SU! and added texture and grass using the 2 pieces from the Pond Friends set meant for background detail. I stamped the sprout image again on Caramel stock this time, colored it a bit, cut it out and layered it over the image on the River Rock stock. The same was done with the lady bug...stamped on red, cut out and layered, but then covered with a bit of crystal effects to make the shell shine. When I attached the fairy to the piece, I left the wings loose, to give a bit of a 3D look. To finish it all off, I layered the piece on Artichoke and Blush Blossom and bordered the main piece with a line of turquoise stickles glitter.

Looking for Warmth

As I was watching my son's first soccer game of the season this morning, the inspiration for this card came to me. You see, it was quite windy and a "balmy" 41 degrees here in Utah for the start of the spring soccer season...the girls and I were cheering the team on while sitting on the sidelines under our blankets and I was dreaming of being warm! Warm...or hot, as in the African plains, seemed wonderful at the time and so I came up with this card.


I made the sunset background in the same manner as I did the one in my Tutorial here. The colors are a bit different but the technique is the same. And instead of blue for the sea, I tore a piece of black cardstock and layered it along the bottom with another on top for the ground. The tree image is from our Lion's Pride set...I colored in the tree tops to make the tree look like it is all in shadow. I kept this card simple, just finishing it off with a greeting (from a zoo set, coming soon) and a black organdy ribbon. I like how it ended up looking rather postcard-ish. Unfortunately, I smeared a bit of black ink just over the sun but since my creative time for the day was up...I decided to let it go and share with you anyway.

Dragon Designs

Do you love dragons? I do, I seem to have an affinity for fantasy creatures. Maybe it is because since they are imaginary, the possibilities are endless...there is no right or wrong. It seems to free my creativity somehow. I suppose that is why my dragon in this card is blue! Or maybe it is because it is a get well card and to be "blue" is to be down or sad. I suppose you can decide.

All stamps on this card and the next one come from our new Darling Dragons set. The cardstock is from SU! It was colored using Stampin' Up Markers on watercolor paper and blended using a aqua brush. I swear this technique by Julie Bulher totally eliminates my desire for coptic markers...this blending technique is great!!

I made this card before I discovered Julie's technique. I tried blending my markers on plain card stock with blenders pens and didnt get nearly as good results. But even though the blending isnt as good as I would have liked, the bright colors work great with this card design.

I love the greeting for his image, it totally cracks me up! So much so I had to make a hot dog for my dragon.

Thanks!

Here is another fun sample to share with my stamping blog friends:

WOW! Thanks for a great opening day!! I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is to be able to create something only to find that, not only does it appeal to you, others like it enough to pay for it as well! LOL THANK YOU ALL!