Hi everyone, today I have a very whimsical card for you! I started this card by stamping one of the cute fairies that come is the “Fairy Sweet” stamp set from Penny Black on Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface paper with Versafine “Onyx Black” ink. After stamping I heat embossed with clear embossing powder so that the lines stay very crisp and black even if I ad water to the image.

Then I started colouring with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I love these markers, they are so easy to work with and I love the bright colours they come in! I used “Yellow” and “Beige” for the hair, “Pale Pink” for the skin, “May Green” for the clothing (there isn’t really much their!), “Light Green” for the wings, “Light Carmine”, “Carmine Red” (which I found almost dried out unfortunately because the cap wasn’t closed, my fault) and “Blue Gray” for the ladybug. I also used a bit of “Light Blue” for the background. I use these markers together with my Pentel waterbrush.

After letting everything dry I also used some coloured pencils over the markers to create a bit more definition, most importantly for the hair: I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos, 132 for the skin, 126 for the ladybug, 171 and 112 for the green parts and 187 and 283 for the hair. The only thing you have to be careful with is that you don’t colour too hard over the heat embossed black lines with the pencils because otherwise the melted embossing powder will come off! I fussy cut the image out with my Fiskars scissors.

Next it’s time to start working on the background: I felt that this whimsical stamp asked for a airy background so I went through my dies end found two sets that I combined. First I die-cut some pearl crème card stock with a Joy Crafts die (number 6002/0304 (which is oval shaped)) and then I found some matching green card stock in my stash and die-cut that with the number 6002/0322 die from the same company. This butterfly die is circle shaped: with my scissors I cut of three butterflies to put them on the left bottom side and the rest of the circle I put on the right top side. I edged the crème coloured card stock with VersaMagics “Wheat” ink and the green card stock with Distress Ink in the colour “Mowed Lawn”.

Then I figured that the tiny butterfly dies from the 6002/0322 die set would make nice embellishments for this card. I cut them from the same green card stock and also from green card stock that was a hint darker. I edged the lighter ones with the same “Mowed Lawn” ink and the darker ones with Memento’s “Cottage Ivy”.

To make the background a bit more interesting I used some light green patterned paper from my stash that I glued on a crème coloured card base (that I edged with the same Wheat ink) after die-cutting it with one of my Crea-Nest-Lies XXL rectangle dies.

To ensemble this card I used some 1 millimetre thick foam tape between the filigree pieces and the patterned paper and 1 millimetre foam tape to adhere the fairy on the crème piece. This way I created dimension to make the card more interesting to look at.

For the sentiment I used one of Whimsy Stamps “Fanciful Birthday Notables 1” stamps. I matted this with a layer of green card stock to make it stand out more and adhered it to the card with 2 millimetre thick foam tape.

To finish this card I glued on the butterflies with Ranger Medium Matte, put some Stickles “Platinum” on the bodies of the butterflies and (with a brush) some Stickles “Star Dust” on the wings of the fairy (when you do this wash your brush afterwards!). I love to do that with fairy-wings, it’s exactly the right finishing touch. I you have never tried that you should! It makes a world of difference.

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:

- SSS Monday Challenge: “Spread your Wings”

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=7939

- SSS Wednesday Challenge: “Anything Goes”

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-anything-goes-35/

- SSS Work it Wednesday January 2017 (both the butterfly and the oval die from Joy Crafts are new items in my stash)

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/blog/work-wednesday-january-2017/

My second card for today is definitely more pink! I used a lot of the same colours as in the first card except for everything that’s green. Most of my cards are very bright and I wanted to try something a bit softer. I think the fairy turned out just right, the background turned out a little darker then I had in mind, but, I love the results anyway!

For my pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers I used: “Sugared Almond Pink” and “Pink”.

For my Faber-Castell Polychromos I used the following pink colours: 119 and 129.

For the inks I used to edge I choose: Memento “Lilac Posies” an Prima Marketing “Blossom Bud”.

For the second colour in my butterflies I choose some pink card stock with a little shine to it.

And for the Stickles on the wings of the fairy I used “Diamond”.

And that’s it for today. I can't decide if I like the green or the pink card best... Which one do you like the most?

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