Contest entries

In a couple of weeks I'll be headed to a stamp show -- yippee! Every year they have a card contest with two themes (one for Saturday and one for Sunday), and you can submit two cards for each theme. The deadline for submitting cards has passed, so I wanted to share the four cards I made. Here they are:

The theme for Saturday is "Abracadabra." I thought about making something with rabbits coming out of a top hat, like the classic magician's trick, but instead I decided to go with the theme of magic in general.

Fairies are definitely magical! This stamp set from Taylored Expressions was fun to color, and I love that with whimsical images the colors don't have to be realistic. I chose four colors -- pink, orange, green, and blue -- and used those for almost all of the coloring, with a dark and light pencil of each color for shading. I used Prismacolor pencils and a blender pencils. I like coloring with pencils more than markers, because I feel like I have better control.

For the card base, I ink blended clouds with white ink on a light blue card base and splattered on some Sparkle Silk. I die cut two strips of grass from green card stock and adhered one layer directly to the card base and the other one using foam tape. Then I added all the pieces, stamped the sentiment and added a few sequins.

I think this is my favorite card of the four. The mediaeval images in an old My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts were perfect, so I stamped the wizard and unicorn on white card stock, colored them with colored pencils, and die cut them. I used a white card base and lightly ink blended a line near the middle to give the images a grounding point. I used foam tape to attach the images and stamped the sentiment and a few little star clusters. (The stars were from a different stamp set, but they worked perfectly here.) I finished off with a few silver star sequins.

The theme for the Sunday card contest is "Lullaby." I don't have many baby-themed stamps, so I decided to focus on two songs: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "You Are My Sunshine."

I actually used a twist on the "Twinkle, Twinkle" lyrics for this card. And I know it doesn't look terribly impressive, but I stamped each of those letters individually. Whew. The spacing between the lines could have been a little smaller, but all in all, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out -- and I was really glad I only had to stamp out the sentiment one time.

For the rest of the card, I used a navy card base stamped with a starry background using gold shimmer paint. I also used the shimmer paint to sponge the edges of the sentiment layer and to add sparkle to the three wooden stars.

This is a fairly simple card, but I think it's my second favorite. (I'm a sucker for a good clean and simple card.) The colors in the rainbow were created with a stencil -- and the last arch is a dark bluish purple. (Sorry for the poor lighting; I was trying to hurry with the pictures so I could get the cards in the mail on time.) I stamped the sentiment, the heart, and the loopy line in black and then a few star clusters in light blue. I added two die-cut clouds, one stamped with a face, of course, and finished the card with a few clear droplets.

I don't know if I'll win anything (the prizes are money to spend at the stamp show), but it's fun to try! I'll report back after the show. Thanks for stopping by!