Hi everyone! Today I’m sharing another card with you that I made as a guest designer for Whimsy Stamps (https://whimsystamps.com/)!

The new February release is gorgeous and I just love the new stamps designed by Sylvia Zet, especially the one I’ll be showing you today, because, I’m a sucker for fairies!

So, today I will show you how to make this card that features this cute new “Hope” fairy stamp. I also used several other new Whimsy products (you see the purple and white background paper? It’s made with one of the new clear stamps released this month, read on if you want to learn how I did that). Now, let’s get started!

I first stamped Hope with Versafine “Onyx Black” ink on Strathmore “Colored Pencil” paper (400 Series). Then I coloured the image with my Faber Castell Polychromos and some Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils (of course you can use whatever coloured pencils you have). My idea before hand was a sort of pastel look, but in the end it didn’t quite work out that way, but I love the end result nonetheless!

For the hair I used: Faber Castell 187, 176, and a little 175 and also Holbein OP127.

For her clothes and her wings I used: Faber Castell 137 and 155 and Holbein OP228 and OP430.

For her skin I used: Faber Castell 132.

Other colours I used: Holbein OP429 (for the pink outline) and Faber Castell 283 and 250.

I use Faber Castell White (101) to burnish and sometimes to make colours a little lighter.

All the Holbein pencils are from the “Pastel Tone Set” they sell on Ebay.

Colouring the hair part can be a little tricky, so, to make it easier I first colour the strings of hair of which I can see best how they fall and also the ones I have a good feeling about where the highlight is, and then I fill in the other parts. I use the lighter colour (OP 127) first on the whole string of hair that I’m working on, then I go to my darkest colour (176) to draw in some extra loose strings of hair (the guidelines that are given in the stamp design are great for this and make colouring this image so much easier) and then I use my middle tone (187), repeat when necessary. Then I go to the next string. Mind, this is my way of colouring hair with coloured pencils, everybody is different: you should find out what’s your preferred method!

When you use coloured pencils (and especially white or pastel tones) the stamped lines have probably become a little lighter by the time you are done colouring (or you can work more neat then I do, in which case: can I borrow your colouring skills please?). To make all the lines crisp and black again I went over the black stamped lines with a black Copic Multiliner (0.3). I also created some extra highlights with a white Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.

Next I cut around the image with a circle die and stamped a sentiment from the new Whimsy Stamps “Friendly Flowers” clear stamp set with the same black ink as I used for the fairy. She looks like she is thinking of somebody, isn’t she? I love the design of these new sentiment stamps, they fit this cute fairy wonderfully well!

I edged the first circle with VersaMagic “Pretty Petunia” and a little with Memento’s “Grape Jelly”. I glued this circle on some dark kraft card stock with liquid glue and, after drying, free hand cut around the first circle leaving a border, with my Fiskars scissors. Then I edged this piece with Versafine “Vintage Sepia” ink to give it a bit more definition.

Then I started working on my background piece: I die cut a piece of purple card stock, that matched the purple coloured pencils that I used on the fairy, with a stitched Crea-Nest-Lies XXL die (you can use whatever dies you have).

How did I transform this plain purple card stock into patterned paper?: I used one of the flowers from the new “Friendly Flowers” clear stamp set mentioned before and stamped this flower in a repeating pattern on the purple card stock with some Hero Arts “Unicorn” white pigment ink. That’s it, easy peasy! Doesn’t this handmade patterned background paper look awesome? I love the result and what it does for this card. Pigment ink stays wet for a long time though so I made sure to dry this piece with my heat tool before going to the next step.

My next step is to edge this purple piece with the same Grape Jelly ink and then die cut a bigger square out of some dark kraft card stock, putting both squares together with liquid glue and edging the dark kraft card stock with Vintage Sepia ink.

I wanted to bring the pink from the Holbein pencil I used to outline the fairy back into the background of this card: I looked through my ribbons for a matching piece and taped that on the back of the dark kraft craft stock and I also used a smaller piece of pink ribbon to tie a knot.

Then it’s time to put this card together: I foam taped the kraft/purple square to a crème coloured card base with one millimetre thick foam tape and then put the circles on in the same way. This creates some dimension for this card which makes it more interesting to look at.

As a finishing touch for this card I glued on some flat back turquoise rhinestones from my stash and some pink sequins from the Whimsy Stamps “Valentine Assortment Sequin Mix” with Ranger Medium Matte and, very important, with a small brush I applied some Stickles “Star Dust” on the fairy’s wings (if you have never tried this you really should, it gives an awesome finishing touch and makes the wings look sort of iridescent). Clean your brush after doing this because after all it’s some sort of glue.

And that finishes today’s card. I love this cute fairy stamp!

I had so much fun creating this card and I truly Hope ;-) that you are enjoying this new Whimsy Stamps release as much as I do, I feel their is something in this release for everybody!

#whimsystampshope #whimsystampsfriendlyflowers #sticklesstardust #makeyourlifecolourful #handmadecards #FaberCastellPolychromos #HolbeinArtistsColoredpencils