Once Upon A Time...My Virginal Voyage Down The Creative Challenge Highway

Ahhh, the wonderful Scott and Martin from Vintage Image Crafts threw out a creative challenge promising laud and praise as well as international fame (and a few wonderful prizes for the top three entries) to the winners.  I took note.  I hemmed; I hawed.  The final 10 days to enter were announced.  I bit.  I love these guys.  They've shared stores of Freebies to friends on Facebook...not to mention the wonderful images they've gifted us with through their newsletters.

Babies, babies everywhere.  It seems this is the year of the baby for friends and family.  I adored the vintage photo offered of a sweet babe sitting in a chair.  Such a sweet angelic face.  There's just something magical about the eyes captured in vintage photos. I knew this image was destined to become a baby shower card for one of the lucky ladies I know.   So, why not tackle two jobs with one card...entry for a craft challenge...baby shower card.  Voila!

Much of my inspiration came from the beautiful collection of papers by DCWV (The Once Upon a Time stack).  They reminded me of the youthful belief in magic and fairy tales...princes and princesses, dragons and fairies.  Since the mom-to-be that I am crafting this for doesn't know if she's having a prince or a princess I tried to keep it as gender neutral as possible while maintaining the fairy tale feel.  My vision was to make it look like a book with a ribbon binding and matching ribbon bookmark.

I like the etherial feel of ripped paper opposed to the stark straight lines of a well-manicured slice so most of my elements have been torn.  I ripped the woodland image from one page and used and Elmer's glue stick to adhere it to another page that had lovely faded typeset story of the Frog Prince, leaving the edges of the woodland image free to curl and lift in places.  I cut out the oval center and used an MS (Marthda Stewart) punch to make the conifer branch border centered around a white paper flower (Prima Flowers) with a little MS Antique Gold glitter (LOVE that stuff!)in the center.

Inside the card I used a castle scene also taken from the Once Upon A Time stack.  I lined it up with the front of the card and cut out another matching oval in the center.  I used a coordinating tapestry print from the premium stack and lightly glued (Elmer's Glue All) the two sides and bottom to the inside castle scene leaving the top open creating a sleeve.  Through the opening in the top, I inserted and centered the adorable vintage photo and adhered it with a simple piece of scotch tape.  The hope is that I will be able to take a vintage photo of the baby when he/she arrives and that picture can then be placed in the card much like a frame.

Next I used a square and gently scored a line (with a MS bone folder) top to bottom a quarter inch in on the binding side of the cover so the card could be easily opened and shut.  I put a thin line of Elmer's glue along the edge and attached the front page of the card to the back page of the card.  I picked out a lovely forest green ribbon and glued it front to back...to give the illusion of a book binding.  I used the same green ribbon to create a "bookmark" gluing the top of the ribbon inside the "sleeve" created when the inside castle image was glued to the back cover.

Inside the card I printed and cut out a vintage crown image found on Graphics Fairy and attached pearl and ruby rinestones to it.  I used hot glue to attach it just above the oval cut out. I find hot glue allows me to dictate the loft an image has above the base media.  As it cools, I can pull the image up giving it dimension.  More MS Antique Gold glitter in a thin line around the inner oval frame.

To complete the cover I ripped an oval of paper with more of the Frog Prince text and distressed the edges with Ranger's Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Antique Linen and used a black sharpie to write "Once upon a time" in the center.  Again, I used hot glue to attach it, lifting it as it cooled to raise it above the base image.  Finally, I added a few cute little dragonflies (cut out with a simple paper punch) attached them with Elmer's and dusted with MS Antique Gold glitter.

So that's my little 'ol first entry into a creative challenge.  Fingers crossed.  I'm certainly looking forward to that worldwide recognition.  Mama always said I'd be famous some day.  Haha!  In any case, I think I've been bitten by the challenge bug.  It's a great way to, well, challenge myself and learn from other artists.  A BIG thank you to Scott and Martin!  Pop on over to their site.  They have excellent freebies and spectacular sheets of vintage images for sale as well as creative ways to use all that great vintage eye candy.

Do You Believe in Fairies?

When I come home from a long day at work I often stroll through my backyard, taking in all of the new flourishes of spring.  There always seems to be something new to revel in.  Tonight as I drifted from one flower to the next I heard a tinkle; a nearly inaudible ringing of a little silver bell.  I turned my head quickly in the direction that I perceived the sound to have originated from and caught a slight glimmer of shimmering wings darting behind the fuzzy leaf of my Lamb's Ear.
I quickly darted inside to get my camera.  Thank goodness I'd had the mind to charge my batteries earlier this week!

There she is.  Can you see her?  A little fairie donning a white columbine dress.   There, just in the middle; peeking out at me from behind the leaf in the center.  Don't worry.  If you can't see her it's just because you need to re-train you mind.  Harken back to your childhood belief that anything is possible and that magical creatures exist right along with us.  You see, as we age we can become bogged down.  We lose sight of the mystical possibilities in life and we focus on the harsh straight lines of "reality".  We stop wishing on stars, believing in fairy tales and tossing coins into fountains.  All you have to do is believe she is there and you'll see her sure as the nose on your face.
Not long after we bought this house my daughter and I planted this fairie garden.  We filled it with all sorts of plants that fairies delight in.

Soft lamb's ear plants for them to snuggle up in at night.  Our one single plant has grown so much over the years and even been split and moved to other flower beds.  Who wouldn't want to curl up in a fuzzy bed like this?!


We planted columbines...purple and white...that have spread like weeds over the years.  Fairies love to fashion beautiful gowns from the frilly flowers and sip dew from their cup-like petals.

Every year we plant pansies of every hue.  What self-respecting fairie wouldn't love to have a gown made from silky pansy petals of burgundy or violet?  (I'm told they can be quite vain creatures but I would never tell them that I knew that.  They're quite easily offended.)

Sometimes you can catch glimpses of them hiding in the pagoda lights peering out of the little windows during the daylight or see a faint glow from within after dark.
That first year we even made a little stream bed out of pebbles and built a bridge to cross it.  Silly, as fairies would have no need of a bridge...with their wings and all.  I suppose it was just to make it homey for them.  Of course the stream bed is in quite a disarray now.  We had little wicker benches and ornaments to collect rain and dew.  My daughter still talks about the fairie garden...though she's getting close to that age when magic starts to fade.
Perhaps it's time we introduced my four-year-old to the magic found in our garden and bring the special area for the fairies back up to snuff before my daughter departs for South Dakota at the end of the month.  Afterall, in this crazy world, we all need a little magic to believe in...maybe one day my children will plant fairie gardens with their little ones and tell tales of Grandma's special garden inhabitants.