Sweet Stampin' ~ Paper Piecing

Wow that week went fast! I can't believe it's the weekend again already! Which means of course, it's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' and we are being sponsored this week by the wonderful Crafts & Me store. 

I jumped at the chance to ink up one of my lovely Hannah Lynn images. I love these and don't get to use them often enough. So I was chuffed to be using the lovely Rochelle created by Hannah Lynn which is available from Crafts & Me for my DT creation. Our theme this week is Paper Piecing, so remembering I had some scaley lizardy looking paper in my stash, I printed the image on this paper and cut out the bits for the tail and bra, which on this occasion wasn't drawn as shells. I've made this sweet card for my sister's birthday. We all think of her as 'The Mermaid', as she's always loved water and has long 'Scandinavian' Blonde Mermaid-like hair! So hopefully she won't see this post! Spoiler alert!

When I saw the colours in the tail, I decided to go all out with my green Promarkers and do her hair in green. I added some lime green in the mix to lift the hair colour a little and I love how this turned out. It reminds me a wee bit of seaweed in a good way and I thought it would be awesome camouflage for a mermaid! LOL. I woke up to a cloudless day today, it was so pretty on the school walk this morning, blue for miles and not a cloud in sight, so that inspired my totally blue sky behind the mermaid.

I've used a bunch of different dies, so I'll list those at the bottom of the post, but the thing I'm most proud of with this make, is my handmade ruffled ribbon. I used a white net bag that my garlic came in, cut it into thin strips, and then handstitched it ruffle by ruffle onto some cream card to create my ribbon. I added 3 strips of string over the stitched area, because it was messy! But I think this looks rather fab. The rest of the garlic bag, I cut up and added behind the image for a bit of texture. It's a wee bit sheerer than muslin, so doesn't show quite as well, but I do like the 'net' effect it's created.

The white sentiment strip didn't look right when I went to add it, so I coloured it the same as the sky, which I think looks much nicer. Though I should have stuck with black ink. I used Memento Olive Grove at first, which was way too Olivey, for my brighter greens in the image, so I added some Memento Paris Dusk on top, (oh the joys of clear stamps!), but it wasn't a perfect redo (ooh I SO want a MISTI!) so it's resulted in a bit of a blurry sentiment. So I won't make that mistake again.

The paper piecing was very intricate in places, between her hands is a super tiny piece, and where her hair strands cover her bottom, each little strip between the hair is individually paper pieced. I really did have my work cut out for me! Hehe, pardon the pun!! But I really am pleased with the overall look of the paper piecing. I'm not sure if she's sitting on a rock or sand mound, so I coloured it as sand.

Card Recipe:

Paper: 'very' old paper pad from Lakeland

Waves: Memory Box ~ Big Splash Border Die

Shells: Marianne Design ~ Tiny's Folding Shells

Seastar and Anchor: Joanna Sheen ~ Small Nautica Set

Edging Ink: Ingvild Bolme Chalk Edger ~ Worn Jeans

Image Frame: Lil' Inkers ~ Silly Stitched Die Set

Sentiment Tab: La La Land ~ Stitched Tabs Die

Lighthouse: Whimsy Stamps Lighthouse Die

Sentiment: Hero Arts ~ Anytime Messages

As usual, you can pop up any of the pics on my posts for a closer look at the details. I'll be back again soon with another post and I've some exciting news I'm bursting to share, so watch this space! In the meantime, head to the Sweet Stampin' Challenge blog to check out what my insanely talented teamies have been up to for some sweet inspiration and come join us for our 'Paper Piecing' challenge. I'd love to see what you do! Have an awesome weekend. Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Dream Valley: #128 ~ Girlie
4 Crafty Chicks: #293 ~ Scenic
The Ribbon Girl: April Card Challenge
Stamping Sensations: April ~ One For The Girls
Crafty Calendar Challenge: April ~ Anything Goes
Little Patch of Crafty Friends: #31 ~ Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations: #248 ~ Anything Goes (sorry not used sketch)

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday ~ 7 Years Old Woohoo!!
Crafting By Designs: You Are Beautiful. I love Hannah Lynn images, if I was given this, I'd be really happy! I think her images are so beautiful.
Crafts & Me: April ~ Fairies & Magic (I hope Hannah's lovely mermaid comes under the 'magic' umbrella. I think they're pretty magical)

Woohoo, my card won the Crafts & Me Facebook challenge. So I've won 4 beautiful digital images from Crafts & Me. A super treat indeed! Thank you Teresa x