Isn't She Lovely?

So, it was Mo's Mum Ginger's birthday yesterday and funnily enough, we were celebrating our own 'Ginger's' birthday last Wednesday - my DD (my 'little' redhead!) turned 19.  Gosh! It doesn't seem possible!  Surely it was only yesterday I was holding her in my arms, all pink and warm and new.  She was adorable then and is even more so now. 

Of course, DD knows all the images I use so well and although she would be delighted to receive any card made by Mum, I wanted something different and special for her birthday.  She recently completed a project at university based on the designer/architect Rennie Mackintosh and as I am a great fan of his work and of the 'Glasgow Girls' (a late 19C group of female artists, including Mackintosh's wife, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art) I thought this should be the start of my search.  I suddenly remembered a beautiful card made by the exceptionally talented Mina Hartley, which used an image much of the kind I was looking for.  Mina had kindly listed the illustrator I was looking for so off I went for a look see and treated myself to a couple of images. 

Image: A Day for  Daisies, 'Leaf Girl'

Papers: Scenic Route

I adore this image and, in fact, could have spent a fortune at A Day for Daisies' Etsy shop.  There are some delightful images over there - you really should check it out.

I wanted this card to be simple and elegant and I hope that I have achieved this.  I chose this beautiful leaf paper to pick up the leaves in the image and to provide some colour. 

The flowers are simply made by tearing spirals in card and loosely winding them, before sticking with a little glue and adding a pearl.  Very simple - very appropriate for this style.

This time I chose to use my watercolour markers to colour up the image, which meant that I had to fix the image after printing it.  I printed on to watercolour paper and then sprayed with ink jet fixative (matt) and left to dry overnight. The markers I have come only in quite basic shades so there was a lot of mixing and blending needed to get the result I wanted.  I love that the texture of the paper shows through the colouring and breaks up the colour a little. 

I used a strip of heavy guipure lace for richness and printed 'Daughter' in a version of the Mackintosh font, so that it tied in.

I think I'll enter this card for the 'Everybody Art Challenge', where this week's theme is 'Birthday' and for the Prairie Fairy 'Fairy Fun Friday Challenge', where 'Anything Goes!'  Both are new challenges that I've not entered before so you never know!

Now DD is home for the long summer holidays and it's good to have her back for a while.  She loved her card, I'm pleased to say, and has been most complimentary about my recent work.  In fact, she has seen my project for tomorrow's post and adores it .... hope you will too.  Don't forget to check back tomorrow for something a little different!

Happy crafting.

xx