Sweet Stampin' ~ Swirls & Pearls

Happy Easter my lovely blog buddies! Wow I can't believe another week has come to a close and it's Easter Sunday tomorrow. The kiddos are so excited, we always do a super fun Easter hunt round at my brothers, which is fab, because he has a huge garden with chooks at the bottom of it, so it feels rather fitting! It's been one of the highlights of my kiddos years, since we returned home to New Zealand. Hopefully the weather will hold out, as we're entering Autumn now and it's been pouring the last few days! But we're forecast sunshine, so finger's crossed!

We've a fab new challenge starting today at Sweet Stampin' and the theme is rather lovely, it's 'Pearls & Swirls'. I had grandiose ideas that I could pull off a shabby chic masterpiece, but reality check, I think I'll leave that rather skilled gorgeousness to those amazing crafty divas out there, (ahem, Live & Love Crafts DT crew), you know who I mean! But I did pull out my stroke only Pion Design papers and found a rather delish set of papers to work with. I'd been playing around colouring up a sweet fairy and putting the two together, I realised the colours I'd used on the fairy worked really well with these gorgeous papers, so my card grew from there. 

I love these papers, I mean REALLY love these papers, so they don't get much of an outing, they're really just for me to swoon over. But every now and again I find myself inspired to use them and when I do, I really don't want to 'cover' any of them, they're just so pretty, with such lovely details on the pages. So my original idea of going full 'shabby chic', got pared right back, to simple paper placing, thin mat edges in contrasting tones and butterflies, because I had to have butterflies for this theme. Pearls and little butterfly trails, was all I could think of when the theme was announced. But no lace, or ribbon, because I want you to see the pretty paper!

The image I've used for this challenge is a sweet one I came across on Deviantart by the Artist Yam Puff. It's called Cherry Blossom Fairy. I loved this sweet image and have wanted to colour it up for some time. I was just playing around with my Promarkers trying a 'sheer' effect and wanted to try giving her silver tinged hair just to see how it would look. I loved it, so kept it and I coloured her dress to tone with the cherry blossoms, so it was all a rather organic creative process. I do love to colour when I'm just playing, seeing where the inspiration will take me. I don't often have time just to 'play'.

The papers as I mentioned are Pion Design from their 'From My Heart II' set of 6x6 papers. The blue/green papers are the 'Forget Me Not' pages. Sandy of Live & Love Crafts has a fabulous special in store right now, which includes some utterly gorgeous Pion Design papers. So go check them out. The sentiment was inked with the purple ink from a Kaleidacolor ink pad called Creole Spice. I've cut the large butterfly with my favourite butterfly die, which is from an older Joy Crafts die called Vintage Flourishes. I think it has the prettiest shaped wings. The smaller butterfly I cut with a Cheery Lynn die, called Exotic Butterflies Small. My set came without the wee Angel Wings. I cut two of each butterfly and layered them up. I used the mauve underneath, just to hint at that colour and layered the blue/green butterflies on top. I used tiny mauve pearls to create the butterfly bodies. I've had these a while and they came from MeiFlower. I wanted a trail behind each butterfly, which is my 'swirl' for the challenge theme, so I used tiny iridescent gems for this. These are also from MeiFlower. It's actually a pretty CAS card really, because the paper does all the work for me. But I think it looks quite lush because of the beauty of these Pion Design papers. 

I couldn't get a good shot of this wee fairy, it's been so overcast here the past few days. So I popped her outside in the long grass to see if that gave a better tone. I think it brings the colours in the papers out better. I hope you'll come and play along with our Pearls and Swirls challenge at Sweet Stampin' and I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Do go and check out the stunning cards my talented teamies have created for this challenge, those girlies rock!

Now the best news about this challenge, is our fabulous sponsor is none other than Live & Love Crafts! So now you know you want to come and enter the fun right?! I'll be back soon with another crafty adventure, but in the meantime, I'll be enjoying some Easter fun with the kiddos, celebrating my birthday, drawing the winners for my celebration candy (which includes a £10 voucher to Live & Love Crafts ya'll!) so I've got some busy days ahead. Happy Easter lovelies! Big hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Mod Squad Challenge: Springtime
Crafts & Me: March Challenge ~ Spring
I <3 Promarkers: #305 ~ Swirls & Pearls
Sparkles Challenge: #78 ~ Make It Girlie
Stamping Sensations: March ~ Flower Power
The Cutie Pie Challenge: #97 ~ So Fairy Cute
The Ribbon Girl: March ~ Any Image Challenge
Passion For Promarkers: #338 ~ Spring Has Sprung
Moving Along With The Times: #16 ~ In The Garden
Whimsy Stamps Challenge: #92 ~ Spring Colours or Easter