A warm welcome to all my visitors,

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my blog, I really do appreciate it. I would love you to leave me a comment, even if it’s just to say Hi. It means I can come visit you!

All my designs are original, so copyrighted to me. If I have been inspired by someone elses work, I have named them in the post, and where able, I have provided a link.

Please feel free to use my designs for inspiration, I just ask you to credit me, and provide a link back to my blog.

Thanks, Shaz XX

Monday 1 April 2013

Lavinia Stamps Challenge #2- Bright & Beautiful

Firstly, a huge Thank You to Eileen Godwin, for inviting me to be a Guest DT member for this challenge, the second from the new Lavinia Stamps Challenge Blog.
I gave the 'Bright & Beautiful' theme quite a bit of thought- I had the idea for sunrise, but didn't know what I could do with it. Finally, inspiration arrived:
I framed my piece, as this will become one of our Granddaughter Merlins birthday presents.
I did something similar for her last year, in this post,also using Lavinia Stamps. 

 The picture itself is on a half A4 piece of matt card, from Lavinia Stamps.
The stamps I used are:
Wet Wings
Cherry Blossom branch,
Spiral of Spells
Three Fairies and
Slender Mushrooms tiny.
 Inkpads are Adirondacks and Versafine.

  I began by sponging Lemonade & Sunshine Yellow randomly over the whole sheet,then tore some copy paper to mask off the upper portion of the card, and sponged Citrus & Meadow Adirondack inks over the lower half. Next came the sunrise and rays, and this took me three attempts to get it looking ok.

These were the first two attempts- I didn't like how harsh the edges looked, and you can see I also changed the orientation for the final version.I'd cut out a circle from more copy paper to make a mask, and also used the edges of the copy paper for the suns rays.
What I finally did was to still use the punched out circle, but I tore around the edge to make it less harsh, and I also tore the edges I was using for the suns rays. 


 To get the rays, I just sponged off the torn edge which made them a little softer,- still using the Sunshine Yellow.













The first stamp onto the background, with Onyx Black Versafine, is Wet Wings,and I made a lot of use of my Stamp Positioner to get everything exactly where I wanted it.

  Next I wanted to 'frame' the image with the Cherry Blossom branch, which I positioned on both sides.








I had started adding the Tiny Mushrooms, when I thought the area below the trees didn't look right, so I added some more of the Cherry Blossom branch on the left to give it some balance.




 I finished adding Mushrooms, and started with the Three Fairies.








I repeated one of the fairies, and the fairy who looks like she could be sitting somewhere, I placed onto the washing line. And that was the stamping completed.




To give the drying fairy wings some sparkle, I added Stickles in Crystal, and also to the wings of the fairies themselves.














Along with the Sunrise, my thought for the Bright & Beautiful had been dewdrops, and for these I used some very small acrylic flatback gems, placed here and there. I added some even smaller dots of dew with the Crystal Stickles.
I now used a couple of pink Promarkers to add colour to the Cherry Blossom.


Looking at the image, I felt it needed something in the central area- it looked a bit too empty. At first, I was going to use the word stamp 'Believe', which I did in Crystal glitter on transparency film.

 
 However, after it had dried, it was just a little too big to fit the space , so I put it to one side. I ended up using it for the card I entered in the February challenge, in this post.
 So I got creative with the Spiral Of Spells stamp. I chose to use the words on it that read 'Sparkling Magical Lights', which I thought summed up the theme, and the dewdrops. Because of the spiral shape, the words are on a curve, which fit nicely with the  rising sun.

I masked off the surrounding words with low tack tape, inked up the words I wanted, then peeled off the tape.











                                        The words fitted perfectly inside the sunrise.

When it had dried, I decided to frame it as a picture for Merlins wall, rather than use it on a card.Now, you have to wonder..... are the fairies placing the dewdrops around, or are they collecting them, perhaps for some magical potion for their Queen? I will leave it to your imagination......

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else take on the theme, and I hope you've enjoyed how I made mine (warts 'n' all).
 

7 comments:

Rossella said...

Good Morning Shaz.
How wonderful is this!
So much detail and the design just made me smile.
Rosie x

Gibby Frogett said...

Hi Shaz...this is gorgeous - pure magic! Fabulous twinkly bits. Think the fairies are collecting the dew drops to make something even more magical out of them. Loved seeing all your photos and info step by step... Gill x

Winnie said...

Wow Shaz! This is so amazing! Merlin must LOVE it. That sunrise and color combo, and most important the love and care you put into it will mean the world to Merlin.

MaggieC (Silvercrafter) said...

Must make sure that Merlin does not see this post. A really lovely picture, and I know she will love it. I really must finish her unicorn cross stitch this year too. Thanks for popping in today, and if you try it, just make sure you have plenty of baby powder on hand and don't breath. xx Maggie

Kim Pope said...

This is beautiful.

gardenpinks said...

Absolutely gorgeous Shaz, magical :)
Lynn x

Unknown said...

Very pretty, love the colors!

An End of an era

An end of an era

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