Into the Woods!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Ever After", which I think is a fantastic theme for a challenge, there are just so many possibilities!  Because most of us are familiar with the more well-known fairy tales it means that it's easy to use a kind of visual shorthand to suggest them - a shiny red apple will always suggest Snow White and the 7 dwarves for example.

That's what I've tried to do with this post card, use iconic visiual elements to suggest a few of the stories.  A few years back I was lucky enough to see the musical show "Into the Woods" which combines several well known fairy tale characters into a new story, so that was my inspiration here.  Can you work out which stories I've referenced?

Red Riding Hood and the wolf are there, obviously, along with Snow White's apple.  The clock represents midnight, when Cinderalla's coach turns back into a pumpkin and her gown turns back to rags.  The snowflakes in the background could be another nod towards Snow White, but I'm combining them with the red of the apple and cloak to represent a different german fairy tale, "Snow White and Rose Red".  The birds on the wire could be a hint towards the birds that pick the lentils out of the ashes in Cinderella's fireplace or the birds that peck up the breadcrumbs that Hansel and Gretel drop to mark their way through the woods.

I really enjoyed making this piece because I got an opportunity to use several stamps for the first time, that have been languishing, unloved, in my collection for a while!

I started out by stamping the snowflakes with Versamark ink to make a clear resist on the blank card.  After heat drying it I applied Iced Spruce distress ink to the card.  The clock was stamped with black Archival ink and then painted with Iced Spruce distress stain applied with a water brush.  The tree was stamped likewise and then coloured with distress markers in Walnut Stain and Brushed Corduroy.  The apple was hand cut and coloured with Ruby promarker and fixed to the card with a stalk drawn in with Walnut Stain marker.

The birds were stamped with Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  Mona was stamped with Memento ink and coloured with promarkers.  I cut her riding hood from white card and coloured it with ruby and grey promarkers to create the folds in the fabric.  The wolf was created on the computer, cut out and coloured before Mona and the wolf were fixed to the background.  Finally I stamped the Post Card on the back and ruled a line to divide the card in half.

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!