Elf Queen

Did you see the article in Craft Stamper Magazine (and it was on the front cover!) this month by Chris Dark (her blog is Sketching Stamper) about using your die cuts in a slightly different way? Chris has just joined the editorial team at Crafting Stamper - I'm thrilled as I love her style and colouring!! Well, I was totally inspired and thought I'd give it a go.  It involved painting and colouring with acrylics and I might have known Chris would make it look too easy - I've seen her colouring images with distress inks and copics in real life, and she sure is clever at that stuff!  And she's lovely too! 

So, I didn't quite follow her tutorial but as I say, I was inspired.  

I started by colouring my watercolour card background (having textured the edges as Chris suggested with a metalwork wheel) with DecoArt Glorious Gold slightly watered down.  I then prepainted my Bella Bouquet Memory Box die with Acrylics and added that with the Spellbinder frame.  My image is the gorgeous Elf Queen from Mo's Digital Pencil which I  coloured with my Pro and Flex Markers. I've decided to keep her as the Elf Queen for my card but she makes an equally fab Bride image.

Once I'd stuck everything down,  I then added some depth and highlights with a mix of Treasure Gold Olive Bronze and Onyx  metallic rubs. 

I added a bow of vintage seam binding and a metal flower - the centre is a vintage sequinned flower from my stash.

Although not exactly following Chris's tutorial in the mag (my colouring skills just aren't up to it!) I do rather like how this has turned out - I wanted to achieve a mediaeval feel which I hope I did. I will definitely add colour to more die cuts in future rather than just cutting them out of coloured or patterned paper.