Sweet November ~ Summer Fruit Fairies

Crafty pals, I had the sweetest thing happen earlier this week, when the lovely and super talented Amy Young, artist of the Sweet November images and colourist extraordinaire, asked me to Guest Design for her latest release. I am so honoured to be invited because I am such a fan of her incredible colouring and I adore her enchanting images. So of course I had to say YES!

I created a little digital scene with three of Amy's sweet fairies. The middle fairy is her Blueberry Fairy and I had some lovely digital paper that I'd just downloaded by Marta Debicka from the CraftWorld site that I thought would be such a lovely backdrop for these cuties. So I printed them layered on top of this pretty paper. I also used the basket which is also available with this release and I layered the blueberries several times, until I was happy the basket looked full. I coloured them more like plums for this design. 

Their little bloomers are the cutest and I had great fun colouring up their outfits with extra little details for a fun finish. I also gave them each their own skin tone, the golden blonde a more olive tone, the redhead a pink toned skin and the brunette I used my usual skin tone combination, which for those of you who like these details is the Copic numbers E11, E00, E000 and E0000.

I used one of my Whimsy Stamps Stitched Rectangles to diecut the scene, taking care not to cut off their little wings. So I fussy cut them along the sides and lifted them over the die, so they wouldn't be cut across. I didn't add a sentiment to this creation, because the lovely paper had this as part of its design, the words grateful, blessed and thankful are in the full paper design, but I was happy with what was still showing after placing the images and the diecutting, to leave it without any extra sentiment. These sweet characters were such a joy to colour, I decided I needed to colour another fairy!

This little cutie is the Blackberry Fairy and with her pose set to pop her on top of something, I decided to make a fruit mountain for her to sit atop of! I layered the blackberries, then cherries off to the side, the raspberries in front of the blackberries and finally the strawberries right up front. I had no idea if this was going to work or not and was quite worried it was going to be too much detail to look nice with competing colours etc. But I think it's come out so nicely, I'm delighted! My highlight on the blackberries didn't come up light enough to give the shine I wanted, so I added some white pen highlights to the blackberries in the end. The rest of the berries came up nicely just with Copic combinations, so I was pleased with that.

I've used my favourite Whimsy Stamps square die to cut this sweet scene, the Notched Squares die set. I love the little bit of interest the notched corners give a square design. I also used a gorgeous Whimsy Stamps paper as the background for this sweet scene, I love how the strong colours worked with my finished colouring and though I didn't choose the paper until after I'd finished colouring, I don't think I could have matched it better if I'd planned if from the start! So that was a happy match.

Not easy to tell in the pics, but I've used Wink of Stella on the wings of the fairy and as I mentioned earlier, white gel pen to create the highlights on the blackberries. I also used a gold Wink of Stella pen to add the little seed highlights on the strawberries. These show best in this last picture. Little details, but they make such a difference in reality! I hope you've enjoyed seeing the creations I made with Amy's beautiful Summer Fruit Fairies, I sure enjoyed colouring them up! Be sure to check out the full release, it's fabulous!

To see all of the images from Amy's latest release, just click through on her beautiful creations above. If you've not discovered Sweet November yet, I encourage you to follow that link, her designs are enchanting and such a delight to colour! Sigh, oh to have half of Amy's incredible skill, you really need to check out her fabulous 'lives' over on her colouring page. Sweet November has a lovely Facebook Group too, where fans can share their creations and oh my goodness, there are some talented folks out there! Stop by to drink in some crafty inspiration. I'll be back with another crafty adventure soon, but in the meantime I wish you a wonderful weekend and happy colouring! Big hugs, Wends xoxo