New Challenge At Aurora Wings

Our new challenge starts today at the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog with the theme of "Anything with Wings".  This will be a 2 month long challenge as we are taking a break for the end of summer vacations and back to school preparations so it will run through September 19th.  It was tough choosing an image this time because there are sooo many gorgeous ones in the Aurora Wings shops, both Etsy and the Aurora Wings.com Digi Store, that fit this theme.  I finally settled on one that I've adored all along, but was a bit intimidated by, called What Dreams May Come. It features Little Elf Kia being carried through the air by a flight of dragonflies.  How MAGICAL!

Once I started coloring, I was pleasantly surprised.  Kia came together quite nicely, in fact she was a joy to color.  The trick is not to print the image too small, (mine is approx 6 1/2 x 6 1/2", yeah, I could have gone a bit smaller, but I be old and my eyesight is failing) and to start with the vines and leaves of the swing since they go right over the top of her curly hair.  I almost missed the tip of her little elf ear on the other side of the vine, initially coloring it as a leaf, but that's what colorless blender is for.  LOL  Here's a closeup.  All done with Copics.

The dragonflies are amazing, aren't they?  I chose two of my fave colorways for these critters that matched the colors I'd started with on Kia.  I've also added Glossy Accents to their eyes and Stardust Stickles to their wings.  I thought that a bit of cheesecloth gave some nice texture and reminded me of the pattern in their wings, as well.  Both DP's are old K&Co and the blue pattern has some glitter which led me to distress the edges of the paper with the edge of my scissors and Stickle around it too, but not until I'd filled in some of the white space with my dotty background around the images and inking the edges with Distress in Tumbled Glass.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut with a Spellbinders Label 4 and inked with Tumbled Glass Distress after embossing while still in the die.  The metal dragonfly was from a set of bug paperclips I got on clearance eons ago at Starbucks.  I freed him from the clip, stickled his wings, colored him with Copics and added some gem eyes.  I thought the yellow bow helped bring some of the color from the flowers (all Prima) to the top right of the design.  That's why I added the second pattern, as well.  It needed something to break up all that blue.  So aren't I the little chatty one today?  Can't help it.  I'm pretty proud of myself for not shying away from an image I thought would be too difficult and I'm more than pleased with the results.  Also, I've already seen the gorgeous creations by my DT Sisters so be sure to visit the Challenge Blog and prepared to be amazed.

Here are all the links you need:

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog

Aurora Wings Showcase Blog

Aurora Wings Etsy Shop

Aurora Wings Digi Shop

Aurora Wings FB Group

Aurora Wings FB Fan Page

I'm entering this in the Dragonfly Dreams Midsummer's Delights, Hiding in my Craft Room Lots of Layers, Open Minded Crafting Kids Just Want to have Fun, Graph'it 2 Color Tones (blue and orange), Crafts Galore Encore Use a Stamp or Digi Anywhere, Dream Factory A Midsummer Night's Dream, Paradise of Stamps July ATG, DL.Art July Linky Party ATG, Inspiration Destination ATG, Crafting with an Attitude ATG, TTRCD July 14-20 ATG, and Simon Says Monday i scream for...(i is for inspire).