HB Princess - MFT Guest Designer Challenge

This month MFT is having a contest to find a guest designer for June 2012.  The challenge is running on their forum on splitcoaststampers.com and I decided "what the heck" & threw my cr8've hat into the ring!

The challenge is a sketch this time around, & here is what they chose to find the latest guest designer for MFT:

The components for my cr8'ion

 I knew right away which paper I wanted to use for the card, which easily lent itself to the perfect stamp set I wanted to work with too.  MFT's PI Birthday Princess stamp set & Pink Paislee's London Market paper pad - they just seemed to be a match made in royalty heaven!  Well, knowing this was going to be a "royal" project... I decided the crown border Die-Namic was the obvious choice; it was used along with the bracket tab Die-Namics & Spellbinders Labels 8.

MFTGUESTDT0612: HB Princess

The PI image was stamped onto Bristol 300 series paper using Distress Ink in old paper; it cr8's for a softer image. Then she was colored using my Copic Markers (Ciao series) & paper-pieced her dress.  To cr8 the white collar on her dress I painted on some Copic opaque white.  Her crown was colored with Copics, but also accented with Stampendous class a'peel stickers (dot sparklers pink); the cake, again, colored with Copics & also accented the candles with Inkssentials Matte accent & used Spica glitter markers (clear & gold) on the flames. 

The image was mounted onto the smaller die cut Labels 8, which was also embossed with the Fleur de Lis embossing plate from Cuttlebug.  The sentiment "Happy Birthday Princess" was stamped using the same Distress Ink pad onto a bracket tab from MFT Die-Namic.  (The bracket tab nicely mimicked the edge of the Labels 8 dies.)

Another glance: detail of flower/crown embellishments

Yet, another glance: image detail of cake, paper-piecing, & die border accents

I really had great fun adding elements to each of the embellishments - not just taking them at face-value.  The Prima paper flowers were raised using 3D dots & accented with silver pearls for their centers, added a button from Pebbles, Inc (Baby Boy collection), & finished it off with a crown embellishment from Making Memories tied through a string of Caribbean Twine from The Twinery.  Even the crown border dies were blinged out with more of the Stampendous class a'peels to the crown points.

Everything on this card came together so beautifully... sometimes the vision in my mind's eye is even better when it's cr8'd in reality! 

I have a real passion for cr8'ing these cards, & only hope it translates from the digital images to capture the sheer enjoyment I get with cr8'ing each of these little pieces of art.  It's so easy to do with great images to work with & MFT never fails!! 

I found MFT over 5 years ago through a mad internet search when someone used one of their Who's That Girl series stamps in a card that was published in a magazine I bought.  I knew I MUST HAVE that stamp (it was their WTG's Say Charge stamp set)!  I found MFT & have never looked back; while I own lots & lots of clear stamps - invariably, MFT are the ones I always reach for when cr8'ing some of my very favorite cards!  It truly would be an honor to be a guest designer for MFT... for so many reasons, but it's so easy to represent a company who's product line is my favorite! 

If you don't know about My Favorite Things yet... you gotta check 'em out:  MFT Stamps.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Cr8'ing!