I made this picture for the competition at Happy Stampers North West (October 2011) – the theme of the competition was “100 Years of Photography” and entries had to use only sepia tints. I wasn’t sure what to do and then I remembered the story of the girls from Cottingley who had taken photographs of the fairies at the bottom their garden in 1917.
I used the following stamps: Tree Root; Stars; Bullrushes; Foliage; Small Pixies; Slender Mushrooms (small); Willow;Wild Poppies (plus some Grass from Stamps Away).
I masked the edge of my card before brayering very lightly with Adirondack Ginger to give the sepia tone. Next, I transferred a copy of a photo of my great-niece, Elsie-Mai, using a technique demonstrated by Barbara Gray on CreateandCraft TV – taking a copy of a photo which I’d made sepia on the computer and then printed out onto ordinary copy paper, and using nail polish remover on a cotton wool ball which was dabbed over the image to transfer it onto the card.
I then used my stamps, with Versafine Vintage Sepia, to build up the image, before removing the masking tape to reveal the border of the “photos”.

I made the photo corners by using the Versafine Vintage Sepia direct to card and simply cutting four triangles.

I wasn’t sure whether people would get the connection to the theme so I was delighted when my card was chosen as one of the winning entries!

Thanks to Lavinia Stamps for the inspiration!

I love this picture Dawn.. thanks for sharing your story with us…. love the card you deserved to win..

I dabbed various colours of Distress inks onto a craft mat, sprayed water over the ink then pressed the card onto the mat. I repated this to create a layering of colour and texture. I then sprayed Shimmers of Gold and Burgundy, stamped the images then finished off with liquid pearls. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute thank you!

Thank you for sending in this lovely card Pamela

A lovely finishing touch…… thank you

Another lovely card … Thanks for spending the time to send them in Ann

This is a great idea an…covering all sides… i think this is the back of the second card..

This is the front of the card… clever !!

Thanks for sending in this lovely card Ann this is the inside of this beautiful card

Thanks for sending in your Halloween clock Karen….Great fun

I got my inspiration for this card from walking my dog in the fields when the wild flowers were growing.

Reminds me of spring…. lovely

I used distress inks for this fairy sunset scene.

Hope you saw these Fairies in the field while walking your dog…. you will have to tell me where this field is…lol