Monday, September 12, 2011

Sleeping Beauty has a New Fairy Godmother!

ADFD sleeping beauty & graphics fairy castle

I've been working on some digital graphics for a hybrid sleeping beauty
card for a while now, but couldn't get the finishing touches right.
The Lily Pad Cards colour challenge was the perfect inspiration for
teeny coral flowers & wee green leaves!

And it's sponsored by my favourite artist,
Tammy of A Day for Daisies.

Here are Kathy's gorgeous colours for the challenge:




The Sleeping Beauty image is one I bought
a while back from A Day For Daisies

It's called Loves First Kiss



And Sleeping Beauty has a new Fairy Godmother:
(she's hip & hybrid)
The Graphics Fairy!

The Gothic Arches background is a free image shared
here by the generous Graphics Fairy, Karen.

[If you haven't seen her incredible blog, and you love clip art,
then you are in for a treat!]

Click the image, if you'd like to go to Karen's post & download it:
gothic-arch (free from Karen, The Graphics Fairy)

and this is the landscape behind it:


Alterations to the images:

1) I reduced the size of both graphics fairy images (since they were nice & big--which makes for great quality when you print them smaller).

2)
For the Gothic Arches image, I also reduced the saturation in Photoshop (making the image a little more "black-and-white-ish"... since my printer seemed to make it a little orange). I really wanted it to match kraft coloured cardstock & to be softer. :o)



Make a castle card with cut windows:

(or you could just print out the
combined digital image below)


  • Inkjet Printer, Matte medium & clear embossing powder
  • Speckled ivory cardstock
  • Copic markers & Prismacolour pencils
  • Edge punch, paper piercer, watercolour pencil to make flowers
I thought it might be fun to make a sleeping beauty card (on a standard A2 card background with Graphics Fairy images).

This method is the cut out the windows and layer the scene in behind method, but I've also combined them digitally and uploaded that in two sizes for you to download if you'd like to save time (linked below).

Print colour & cut sleeping beauty

Step 1) Print, colour, & cut out the sleeping beauty image.

I heat-embossed the ADFD Loves First Kiss digital image by painting matte medium onto speckled cardstock, but you could use Paris Bleedproof cardstock if you want a heat embossed digital image. More about the Paris Bleedproof paper for digi embossing in this post.

...and I did that textured hair thing again (scored curving lines into
her hair with a paper piercing tool to give it texture):

ADFD sleeping beauty hair

The scored lines seem to make it easier to colour hair.



Step 2) Print Gothic image --at 50%)--on a light cardstock (alter the colour first, if you like). Cut out the windows & half of the door. (I used an exacto blade and as you can see, I didn't worry about making the hidden bits tidy) ;O)



Step 3) Print a small section of the Gothic Arches image & cut it to make the bier for sleeping beauty to lay upon. I made the image darker, before clipping a piece of it in Photoshop & printing it.



Step 4) Print the Landscape image at 33% (You can crop it first to save ink). Place the landscape image behind the Gothic arch windows and trim it to fit. (I overlapped it to get the little hill to show in the left-hand window--the mess will be invisible later muhahaha).

ADFD sleeping beauty close up

Step 5) Cut out the bier & adhere it to the card. Adhere sleeping beauty on top of it. (add flowers and leaves and glue on a scrap of crochet, if you like.)

(The teensy wee flowers were made with the left overs from an edge punch, coloured with watercolour pencil crayon. The leaves are just cut from some paper coloured with a copic marker)

Step 6) Adhere everything to a folded A2 card (5 1/2" x 4 1/4")...

...and th-th-th-that's all, folks:


I also made a purse template filled with pattern to match,
but had no time to finish it if I wanted to get a card in
for that ADFD Lily Pad challenge.


&

If you don't want to do all the fiddly cutting that I did above:
you can simply print the combined backgrounds, cut out the bier,
add sleeping beauty, and 'garnish' with flowers. ;o)

PDF, PNG and JPEG formats:
Click the images to visit Flickr if you'd
like to download JPEGs.
Click the links for PDFs, or find the PNGs below:

Download PDF for background here
graphics fairys gothic arches and landscape combined and bier A2 size

Download PDF for the castle purse here
landscape castle purse mel stampz

Download PDF for LARGE background here
LARGE graphics fairys gothic arches and landscape combined and bier


JPEG format files:

How to save these PNGs:

1) Click on the small images below
(it should open the full image in your browser)
2) Then right click with your mouse
3) chose the option "save image as PNG"



More on how to Download files
types & terms of use here


I would've simply asked you to visit The Graphics Fairy for these, and not have taken the liberty of sharing the combined images, but it took ages in Photoshop, so I thought I'd save you the work. If you use any of these, be sure to credit Karen & link her, pretty please. :o)


Thanks so much for having a look,

22 comments:

Dorcas said...

WOW! Very cool! This is breathtaking, Mel. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

WOWZERS, how cool is this?!? It is so col! Love it, Mel!

liannallama said...

This is incredible! Your projects always stun me and leave me in awe! Thanks for sharing!

Dawn said...

GACK!! I just wish I had even a thimbleful of your talent! Your brain is always in high gear!! Totally fabulous, dahling!

mmmm, wish you could smell my kitchen right now... 5 gal roma tomatoes simmering on the stove for sauce!

xoxo

Katarina said...

Good grief woman, you never cease to amaze me! I envy your printer-ink-embossing skills, LOVE the effect! I've never had much luck with it, but have yet to try the matte medium trick. Now to hunt that stuff down...it's got to be around somewhere in my piles of junk...

Mary Dawn said...

every single piece you create is excruciatingly beautiful...but this one takes the cake...i'd hang it on my wall and marvel at it each day, it's just that stunning, Mel

Dina Kowal Creative said...

Oh my GOSH you are brilliant! This is absolutely gorgeous!

Jennie Garcia said...

That is amazingly gorgeous!! THAT IS ART!! Beatiful!! TFS!! Take Care!!
Jennie @ http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Monika/Buzsy said...

Fabulous card Mel. Love the sweet sleeping beauty image, the coloring... the tiny flowers are just perfect. The digi images are lovely. :o)

sunghee said...

Ho~~~~~~~ly Cow~!!!! I'm speechless, Mel! Breathtakingly beautiful! WOW!!!

Savannah O'Gwynn said...

This is why I love visiting your blog--this is STUNNING! That hair technique is FABULOUS, GENIUS, and SOOOOOOOOOOO GORGEOUS! LOVE:)

Erum Tasneem said...

WOWSERS!! Mel you ALWAYS make the most stunning, out of the box creations! LOVE this.
I absolutely love the dimension this has because of the fussy cutting. Must have taken quite some time but the result is GORGEOUS.
I love how creatively you put two beautiful graphics together and played with the castle one to show more hills. Clever!
The hair technique looks awesome! I will try this, thanks for the inspiration :)
LOVE the bier idea!
Adding flowers and leaves?! Cherry on top! You are and always will be the crafting queen!

Erum Tasneem said...

oh I wanted to know if you print on high quality for outline images to emboss? I usually print on fast normal, and that is not heavily inked hence not wet. I will be getting my embossing powder soon and I thought I'd better ask now!

Ladette said...

You are AMAZING!! I love your "work" (yes, I use that term loosely, 'cause I consider it play, but it's also work!). As another commenter said, "You always STUN me and leave me in AWE!" :) Thanks for sharing!

linda from arizona said...

Mel, this is so beautiful! I think when I was born, I missed out on the imagination gene. I would have never come up with something so divine.

Ruth S said...

Love it Mel! Amazing detail ;)
Rx

Limarea said...

It's beautiful! Thanks for sharing :)

Sharon said...

An absolutely stunningly gorgeous card!!!!!

alexandra s.m. said...

I'm very moved by both your talent and generosity!!
Thank you for an incredible post and this awesome project! I'm pinning your image ;-))

Kathy said...

Oh my goodness Mel it's absolutely mind boggling what you put into your cards!!!!!! The details are incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You never...never cease to amaze me and delight me. I can't imagine how long it must take to create your posts. Thrilled that you found time to participate in the “Kathy’s Color Pad Palette Challenge” :)

Nancy K said...

Speechless....absolutely speechless! I need a minute to regain my composure....you have totally inspired me and wowed me at the same time! LOVE this, LOVE all the fabulous detail. I'm just simply amazed and so glad you joined us at Lily Pad Cards!

fairyrocks said...

WOW I am so glad I popped by. This is one of the best new tutes I have seen in a very long time.
Thanks for sharing. Fabulous work
Keep smiling and creating