Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Another post already?

Yup! :) This one is a bit special since I made it specifically for the challenge over at Mo's Challenge blog. The challenge was to make a Christmas card for someone special using traditional colors. I hope these can be considered traditional!
Now, I have to say, I'm not warming up to digital stamps the way I thought I would. Why? Well, mostly because I have a ton of trouble printing them! It's definitely something to do with operator error (not Mo's files - those are awesome!) but I can't manage to get one printed that looks good in under an hour. Yes, an hour! It's going to take some serious work to figure out what the problem is - in the meantime I've added this fairy stamp (and a couple of others) to my wish list now that they're being made by Stampavie. Hope I've been good enough for Santa!
I fell in love with this fairy just as soon as I saw her. I could think of all kinds of ways to use her - Christmas theme just happened to come first. There are a *lot* of things going on here - let me take you step by step.
First I printed the image (about 15 times, but you knew that). Then I colored her with a combination of Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor pencils and Prismacolor pencils. Honestly I'm not all that fond of Prismas but the Lyras don't have as many shades and I needed some 'flesh' colors. My understanding is that Prisma pencils are wax based and Lyras are oil based - the Lyra pencils blend like a dream! Everything on that panel was colored with Lyra pencils and blended with either OMS or the Splender pencil except the flesh colors. Even the sky!
Once the fairy was colored I used my Xyron to adhere it to a piece of white card stock (I told you the printer was giving me fits!). Using nesties and my cuttlebug I cut & embossed the panel. By then I felt comfortable adding glue and glitter to her wings, stickles to the star and some Radiant Pearls to her dress and belt. I set it aside to dry and started working on the green piece.
The green piece started out as a plain piece of white card stock which I colored with Pine Needles Distress Ink. The tree (Stamp Oasis, I think) was stamped several times with the same ink. Using Matte Mod Podge I glued a piece of mulberry like paper (with those silver & gold flecks in it) to the top of the green. Once dry I used the ScorIt to score the edges and a paper piercer to pierce around that. Finally (although you can't see it in the picture) I ran it through my cuttlebug with the snowflake Impressability from Spellbinders.
Layers of muted gold card stock were added, then everything was mounted on a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 base card cut from decorative white/pearl card stock. That, of course, was also edged with Pine Needles. :) As the very last step I added the metal star clip and a Swarovski crystal to the top.
I wish you could all see this in person! It's very textured with lots of sparkle. And I *LOVE* my Christmas fairy!
Thanks for dropping by!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!

This Mo's image looks GREAT in TEAL..one of my favorite colors!

Come back to Mo's to show us more of your work!

Elaine L. said...

How pretty this is! Well worth all the trouble you had. Thanks for sharing it with us in Mo's challenge this week.

Peet said...

I love this beautiful card, Mari!!!

Etha said...

OMG she is ADORABLE!! what a super cute fairy with the right proportions LOL. And you say Stampavie will have this one as a stamp?
Love your coloring, especially the wings, they came out amazing. I totally hear ya on the digital "stamp" printing. My printer ink will work with nothing but pencil and with these arthritic fingers, I don't use pencil so very often.

babs55 said...

Beautiful card!! I love the green panel with all the treatments you gave it---the green distress, the stamp ,the scoring ,the nestie/cuttlebug!!! The fairy is great too. Thanks for sharing with us.

The Wired Angel said...

Stunning card!! You did a fantastic job. I'm not sure why you have such printer problems and wish I could help out in some way 'cause digitals rock!! Thanks for playing along with us this week at Mo's! Hugs, Peggy

Unknown said...

Your printer issue may be OS based - get your man to fix it? Card looks fantastic!

Beverly Ash Gilbert said...

I love her voluptuousness! And of course the teal!

Jill said...

Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog! I love your blog! I will definitely be back to visit often! This card is magical! Lovely image and you used it to create a striking card!

lauren bergold said...

oooooooooh! well printer-based shenanigans aside, this is MAGNIFICENT!!! i love all of the depth and texture and interest you get with inks and so forth...i think i'm gonna HAVE TO steel m'self and learn some...GASP!...techniques, so i can emulate my stampin' idol! :)

Unknown said...

Love your colors on your chubby fairy. The technique I used was the Alcohol Ink and Foil. Thanks for visiting my blog!