Monday, 4 February 2013

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:

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!



Monday, 28 January 2013

Seeing Stars


The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Stars".   I love stars, they're probably one of my favourite design elements.  I decided to make a little book for a friend's daughter that would hopefully stimulate her in terms of number, letters, texture and colour.  Of course, as is appropriate for this challenge, I made stars the centre of the show!

The song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is sung to the same tune as the alphabet song, so I'm hoping she'll learn both with the help of this book and the lettering around the edge of the box.  By using brads in a range of shapes and colours it will also give her something tactile to count.  As her skills get more sophisticated she'll be able to separate them by colour, shape and size too.
Each text page was prepared and printed by computer.  The facing pages were covered with Retro Grunge card stock and studded with a range of star and flower shaped brads.  The box was edged with Cavellini and Company Numbers tape, and the top and inside were covered with Retro Grunge card stock.  The book cover again used Retro Grunge to highlight the stars theme and the whole thing was bound using the Bind-it-all machine.  Hopefully it will become one of her favourites at story time!

Supplies I used included:
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!





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