Lavinia Stamps Challenge #1- Anything Goes!

I love Lavinia Stamps, so the new Challenge Blog really appealed to me, and the DT is headed by one of my early followers, and a very talented lady, Eileen Godwin!
 I had to have a go at the first challenge, which is 'Anything Goes', as long as the stamps are Lavinia. All the Rules are HERE. You have till the 31st of March to enter this one.

 When I went to the Hobbycrafts, NEC show last November,as well as some Lavinia stamps, I also picked up a pack of Traceys new ready made backgrounds, which come in lots of colours & scenes,called Original Scenescapes and I've used one called Blue Sky for this card.

I used 5 stamps for this piece-
 Tree Goddess Luna,
 Spiral Of Spells,
Miniature Dragon,
Slender Mushrooms, small and
 Believe word stamp.
 Everything was stamped using a Versafine Black inkpad, and the first image stamped was Luna.

You can see a couple of test stampings on my scrap paper, I often do this just to reassure myself I've got it inked properly.










  Next I wanted to add the Spiral of Spells, so to get a feel for how to place it, I placed it uninked over the moon. I decided I didn't want the words to overlap the fairy, and if I could I also wanted the  spiral to be inside the moon itself.



So out came the trusty Stamp Positioner. I stamped onto that, then placed it so I could see what I needed to mask.






Rather than make a mask of the fairy, I masked off the words I didn't want to print on the stamp itself, using Low Tack tape.


Once I had inked the stamp, I tried a test print on my scrap paper- it came out ok, so I re-inked, then removed the low tack tape from the stamp.












 
     I carefully lined up my Stamp Positioner again over the moon, then stamped the Spiral Of Spells ( holding my breath!).









                   Next I added the small dragon- maybe he's a long way off, or perhaps he's just a baby?- then the slender mushrooms, small, along the bottom.

Now we needed some fairy sparkle!
 I used Black Diamond Stickles to outline Lunas wings, and to add detail to the branches and tips of the mushrooms.







Its hard to see in this picture, it doesn't show up very well. I felt it needed a bit more sparkle, so I gave the whole image a quick blast with Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle, Iridescent.

 
 I took another picture from a different angle here to try & show the glittery finish.




















After this, I added the word 'Believe'.

I stamped it onto a transparency sheet in Black Staz-on, then traced over the word with pva glue, and sprinkled with  a crystal glitter. Left this to dry out overnight, then trimmed close to the word. A few spots of glue on the back, behind the glitter, secured it to the bottom left of the image.I actually made this word for another project, but it didn't 'work' in the end, so I put it aside. But it was perfect for this one.





 
Then I matted the image onto Pearlescent Black paper, and trimmed down to a narrow border.



To make the card, I took two sheets of purple pearlescent card. and cut them down to make the shape I wanted.



 
    I scored each piece about 1 inch in from the left, and matted the image to one panel.

 Next I made two marks where I would put the eyelets, made the holes in the top piece, lay the back underneath, then made the back holes
through the top holes, so they would line up properly.
  If you wanted to add an insert, you could do it at this stage, just before you add the eyelets. Sandwich the insert between the two pieces of card, and punch the holes through all the layers.

Purple eyelets were added, and a length of purple & white dotted organza ribbon threaded through & knotted at the front.