The Legend of Natsuko

Welcome to the Guild Hall. Thank you for stopping by today on your crafty travels. A special welcome to anyone who may be popping over from the Use It Tuesday Guild. Come in from the cold and warm yourself by the fire; the direwolves won’t bite.

Last week we were visited by a mysterious woman from the far eastern realm of Aziana. She was passing through the land and stopped at the Guild Hall along with her nest of slithering snakes. She introduced herself as Natsuko and performed some impressive magics using numerous rare and foreign powders and stones. We were fortunate enough that she was willing to trade some of these magical supplies with us, as they are extremely difficult to obtain in these parts.

I started this card by stamping “Natsuko” by Kraftin’ Kimmie and colouring her with Prismacolors. Because 2013 is the Chinese year of the snake, I cut out some snake silhouettes using the Four Legged Friends cartridge. I cracked open the packing on my lantern embossing folder to emboss the gold paper using the Cuttlebug, then embossed the red paper with a cherry blossom pattern, earning myself +55 impression exp points. The banner was stamped using Lawn Fawn’s “Bannerific” and “Jessie’s ABCs” sets then inked with Wild Honey Distress Ink.

On the inside I used a sentiment from the My Pink Stamper “Biggie Christmas Sentiments” set. The other two images came from the Stampin’ Up “Dream Gardens” set.

I stamped the woman from the “Dream Gardens” set on the envelope to make it all matchy-match.

I created this project as a guest designer for the Use It Tuesday challenge “2013”, but this eastern delight will be appearing in the following challenges:
Divas By Design Challenge #66: Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew Challenge #26: Chinese New Year
Challenges 4 Everybody Challenge #10: Anything Goes
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #52: Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland Challenge: New Beginnings
Card Crafter’s Circle Challenge #55: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes
Pixie Dust Studio Challenge: Any Celebration
Stampotique Designers Challenge #80: Out with the Old, In with the New
Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #4: Anything Goes

With the rare ingredients we received from our mysterious visitor, we will be able to create some powerful magics which will aid us in our upcoming quests in the next sun cycle. Now to break the news to the Lady Commander of Copics, that she cannot keep Natsuko...*sighhh*

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

The Lake of Mirrors

It sure has been a hot last couple days in the Guild Hall. I had to send the house gnomes to the market to purchase some jars of witchwind in an attempt to keep the place cool.  The Lady Commander suggested an outing to the Lake of Mirrors to help "beat the heat". I vetoed that idea on account of the recent harpy infestation. Her suggestion did remind me of our "beach" outing to the Lake of Mirrors the previous year when we took our pets to the lake and my dire wolf, Lycan, went swimming for the first time.

First I spritzed the page with my London Blue Dylusions spray ink earning me +45 splatter exp points. I cut the phrase "splash" from the Pack Your Bags cartridge and embossed it using good 'ol reliable Swiss Dots. The little sun was from Simply Charmed and the phrase "doggy days" was from Four Legged Friends. I earned a triple combo bonus for using three different cartridges on this layout netting me +357 exp points!

I don't know how I feel about this layout. I definitely specialize in card making attack points and I will have to level up my scrapbook layout magic quite a bit. Well...not going to level up if I don't gain some experience first.

I will enter this piece into the following challenges:

Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #75: Summer Fun

Crafting For All Seasons Challenge #32: Splash Me
Paper Playtime Challenge #80: Anything Goes
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #23: Beach Theme

The heat has yet to ebb and I think we will be slumbering in the dungeons tonight just to keep cool. Hopefully the brigands will keep quiet so we can get some rest.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~