Time for a Change

One of my darling pals in the UK has changed jobs recently and I wanted to make her a pretty card to celebrate this time of change. She's been looking forward to the job change and had quite a wait seeing the old contract out, so I wanted to mark the occasion.

I have loved the beautiful images at Crafts & Me drawn by talented artist Sara Burrier for so long. Her images are wistful and enchanting and have a slightly ethereal quality. I have several of these beautiful images, but as yet haven't inked them up. I've been wanting to use this gorgeous stamp Lady of Opal for the longest time. I saw this gorgeous Raspberry Road paper from their Barbershop set when I was hunting through my digital paper stash and knew straight away I wanted to use it for this card. I liked the symmetry of the clock face to mark this time of change in my friends life. I also loved the soft colour wash which I think gives this paper a magical feel and I felt matched the idea I had in my head for this card. I wanted the fairy to look as if she was part of the paper and yet rising from it. I'm so happy with the finish, which sadly isn't captured perfectly in the photos. But hopefully you get the feel of it. I've taken shots in different lights, so you get to see as many of the details as possible.

I paper pieced the top half of the fairy including all those loose strands of her gorgeous hair! A real labour of love, but I'm so happy with the finished look. I then used my Promarkers in very soft hues similar to the paper, to make the lower half of the dress blend in with the digital paper. I used my Promarkers on the wings too, to give the central areas a gossamer finish and added Glitter Magic to the outer veins of the wings. They do look quite magical in reality and I was so pleased with the finish. The shot below shows some of the details better as it was taken in lower light. I LOVED working on her hair. The blue and soft green worked so well together.

The lovely Carpe Diem sentiment stamp is from Vilda Stamps and I bought it from one of my favourite online craft stores Live and Love Crafts. They've just had a website relaunch and it looks so pretty! If you've never shopped there pop in and have a look, you won't be disappointed. I inked the stamp in London Fog Memento ink, so it would look as if it was part of the paper. Love how that turned out.

I don't know what it is lately, but I'm all about the subtle details. I wanted to embellish the corners of this card, but didn't want to go for a heavily contrasting paper, so I actually just cut the corners again from the same paper using an SCACD die called Garden Corners and layered them over. I love this effect. When the light catches them, they look amazing and it's an unexpected treat, that you might not see at first glance. I added a blue pearl to the top corner and green one to the bottom corner, tying in the colour theme. The light was right in the pic below to show up the corners really nicely. It added a nice tactile element to the card too, as it's quite sparse in many respects. 

Thanks for popping in to my little corner of the blogosphere, I love it when you do. I'd love to know what you think of my approach to this card. I really loved making it. Have an awesome weekend and see you again soon. Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:

Divas by Design: Anything Goes

A Creative Romance: Anything Goes

Let's Craft & Create: #96 ~ Anything Goes

My Mum's Craft Shop: #21 ~ Dies or Punches

Crafty Little Fairies: September ~ Sparkle & Bling

One Stitch at a Time: #219 ~ Anything Goes with a Die

Crafting at the Weekend: #5 ~ Anything Goes + DT Call

Live & Love Crafts Challenge: #27 ~ Things with Wings
Crafts & Me: September Challenge #150 ~ Time For Anything

Papertake Weekly: Repeat Repeat (Repeated colours and repeated corner dies)