Just Fly ~ One Sweet Challenge March theme response

Hi there! Since it's a new month, we also have a new theme at One Sweet Challenge. This month the theme is Pastel Colours with Ribbons, Pearls, and Lace. Now the last three didn't cause me any grief but the pastel colours really kept me on my toes throughout this mixed media spread. I do not do pastel colours often...even when I start out that way. Usually some wild and crazy colours and lots of black find their way into my art. I even wrote a little reminder sign that I kept on my desk so I wouldn't forget and pop in some jewel tones...lol.

I chose to play with a Sweet Pea Stamps image by Helena Reis called Cherry Blossom Dreams. I love her whimsical images and the sweetness of her faces. I coloured this little fairy with Prismacolor pencils, adding a few Polychromos to shade the skin. I fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border, and then matted her in brown...not black as usual. She is so gentle and dreamy looking...love her. Foam squares were applied to the back of the image to add dimension once she was adhered to the background.

The background was a piece of designer paper cut to 6 x 8 inches. Stencilling was applied to it with Beach Hut and Mermaid Fresco Finish paints through Colorbox's Swirl Dot and TCW's Mini Harlequin Circles stencils. Some text was stamped on with Cornflower Blue Archival and some bubbles with Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Torn pieces of yellow designer paper were dry embossed and added to the background overlapping old book paper. White crocheted lace was layered over two of those pieces and white half pearls were added to the center medallions. Three lengths of pale yellow dotty ribbon were cut and added to the top right corner. Three large half pearls accented the tops of these. Another length was folded onto itself and a thin strip of cardstock to create the detail where the branch begins and overlap the end of that part of the image so it doesn't float.

A final piece of the same ribbon was folded into a loop and added as a tab on the sentiment element. This was edged in Vintage Photo once it was die cut, and then matted with brown. Faux stitching was added to give it more visual weight. To balance out the upper left corner, a photo corner was punched from left-over sprayed paper and adhered in from the edge. The finishing touches were the doodling and outlining, the pearls in her beautiful flowing hair, and a brown mat to frame the piece and provide contrast with the pastels as well as tying in the colour of the branch.

Thank you for joining Cherry Blossom and me today. To see the other fabulous projects by the rest of our talented DT, please visit One Sweet Challenge. We would love to have you join us this month for our Pastels plus Ribbon, Lace & Pearls challenge. Be sure to stop by Sweet Pea Stamps, as well, to see more of these gorgeous images by Helena Reis and all of the other talented artists featured there.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie