Castle Swap

Excitement beyond all excitement. Before I left on vacation i received in the mail my swap castles and boy are they fabulous! Last month I posted the castles that I made HERE for this fabulous swap hosted by Sarah Whitmire through Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group. If you are not a member...shame on you! Anyway let me tell you about the lovely pieces I received since my scanner did them absolutely no justice. This one is by Jan W. The image in the center (oval cut) is from one of the many fabulous Collage sheets we were required to use. What does not show up on her lovely castle is the glitter glue that she has on the steps and in Cinderella's gown. It looks like everywhere Cinderella stepped she left a little glitter. Coming out of the back of Cinderella's gown (where is meets the oval cut) Jan attached white twual (sp?) and then she dabbed randomly the lovely glitter. Of course the clock in the top tower is striking midnight... This lovely castle is by Keron Lee one of the Alpha Stamp Design Team Members. There are so many layers to this fabulous castle that I almost don't know where to begin. Okay from top down, the tower image appears to be stamped and then colored or the paper faded there... Next she mounted (I think) the images of Cinderella and her fairy godmother. There are dozens of iridescent stars in the light fire area close to the fairy godmother that shimmer when you turn the paper. they are also on the dress and easier to see there. On the far right the brickwork is hand drawn and layered over the Cinderella image. The roses are rub on's and absolutely fabulous...I would love to have these for our next Castle swap which is for Sleeping Beauty. I am utterly amazed with Keron's collage talent...you can see more of her work on her web site, the colourguru. When I saw this castle show up in the photo album on the Yahoo group I was very interested in the techniques used. Now that I have it in my hot little hands I am even more intrigued. There is so much texture to it I just can't stop running my hands over it. The Castle really does feel like a wall! Martha F. Hand drew the background which just blows my mind since I can hardly color in the lines half the time. The Cinderella image has been enhanced with more hair detail and the bricks on the right hand side were painted over the image. The red and green flower vines are also hand painted...Okay everything is hand done! She also has a touch of bronze glitter all over the castle an where the turrets are (next to the black) she has added gold glitter. I am utterly amazed by her work. I think this lovely castle is the one that my scanner did the least justice to. Sarah W. also a design team member made this stunning castle. And everything on it shimmers...and I mean everything! The black items are embossed stamped images from Alpha Stamps and the images in the center are from the Cinderella Collage sheets. But Sarah didn't just cut them out and attach them she added shimmery paint to them...at first I thought she used Sparkling H2O's but she used Goldens Fluid Acrylics. I am hopping I can recreate the fabulous shimmer using my H2O's. the swirl on the right hand side is hand drawn and there are rhinestones at the ends of each curl... Oh, the background which I know she made by hand is also entirely shimmery. In other words this is my favorite piece I have ever received in a swap...after all everything shimmers. Thanks Sarah for sending me your fabulous Castle I can't stop looking at it. you can see more of Sarah's fabulous work on her website,Caspiana, she also has a fabulous Etsy store. Hope you enjoyed looking and keep watching for my Sleeping beauty castles, I have to have them in the mail by the end of the month so I better get working on them. Hugs Caro