In the highlands, in the country places,

Where the old plain men have rosy faces,

And the young fair maidens quiet eyes…

~ R L Stevenson

Once upon a time in a village far away sat a little white cottage waiting for spring.  With the gales of winter past, tiny blossoms blanket the hillside and new lambs spring to-and fro playing silly lamb games.  Raindrops splash against the window pane and she is reminded March in the highlands can still be cold and damp.  She pulls her cape tighter, preparing for the long journey…

Hello Bluebird Friends!

I’m sharing another sweet storybook card with you today that encompasses some of my favorite friends.   Our scene opens up through a make believe portal to a little cottage in the glen.  I used the sweet Storybook Friends stamp to build a landscape around my sketched cottage on a round panel cut from Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper.

Once I had sketched and stamped the foundation I laid down a light glaze of watercolor and set it aside.   To begin building the scene I like to stamp the elements on masking paper and fussy cut them.  The slightly tacky paper allows me to arrange and rearrange until I am satisfied with placement.   And in this case, I did change it up in the end (she smiles).

All the little characters were stamped with Distress Antique Linen ink on hot press watercolor paper.  I prefer hot press for the smooth white appearance.  And I’ve used several different watercolor mediums.  The cottage scene and landscape is watercolored using Schmincke Horadam pan watercolors, and all the little storybook characters are watercolored with Kuretake Zig Watercolor Brush Pens.

To ground the scene I cut a little book  from patterned paper opened to our story and placed the characters around the cut circle.   And, like my other storybook cards I’ve sprinkled some happy moments in stardust form along the path and around the cottage using Stickles Stardust glitter glue.  All of the characters are adhered along the circle with glue or raised when appropriate with 3M double sided tape for additional dimension.

Those who know me know that I like to add in patterned paper when I can.  I looked through my stash for a small pattern and found this wheat colored lattice pattern – perfect!  I cut a circle one size smaller in the lattice pattern and adhered it over the cottage scene.  Then I placed the circle with our storybook characters over the scene.  The path to our storybook card is complete.

Stamp sets used on this card:

A dainty tea awaits our friends as springtime blossoms in the highlands.  I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit today and will create your own storybook card to share with us.

Very sincerely,

Susie Lessard ~