Sleeping Beauty Castle Swap

Well everyone, here are the Sleeping Beauty castles that have had my panties in a wad for days. I finally decided that the reason I was having so much trouble making these is because I adore the story of Sleeping Beauty and subconsciously I was worried that I was not doing the beauty of the story justice....I'll let ya'll be the judge. So, to recap...Alpha Stamps yahoo group is doing a Castle swap. We started with Cinderella and then moved onto Sleeping Beauty. Make sure you check back sometime next month to see what fabulous pieces I get in return. The First Castle I call "Awaken" the paper is made using a floral stamp and then I covered it with chalk and spritzed it with a shimmery gold. On top of that I placed a window I colored with the Alpha Stamp image. Then I layered a home made transparency...the last three paragraphs of the story and finished it all off with the fabulous vine ribbon, also from Alpha Stamps. I was really not happy with this one until I put the transparency over it... I think this is my favorite, "My Prince" ...and it only took me three days to cut out all the rose vines LOL... The rose vines are painted with sparkeling H2O's so they shimmer...The background paper I made by taking various inks and rubbing them directly on to the paper. Then I stamped bricks. Everything on this castle is flat..believe it or not. The ruins hiding on the bottom of the castle behind the rose vines are also cut from the same paper that I made for the background. This castle I call "Shhhh" is a take on a card that I did for a friend of mine a few months ago. I used an intricate stamp from Stamp Out Cute that is all lines...really intriguing. I cut some of the lines out and intertwined two of the stamped images together to make one side of the gate. The paper it is stamped on is made from Sparkeling H2O's I rubbed various shades all over the paper until it was completely covered...it is really a neat effect. The roses are stamped on various shades of red paper I think I had to cut close to 50 mini roses... I attached the gates using brads and keep them closed with the lovely brass colored leaves that I got from Alpha Stamps also...the leaves are intertwined so it is easy to open. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that all I did with the image is glue it down...but I thought it was so pretty as is that I could not improve on it. I hope that what I did is enough...it took me two days... And this one "Touch It" has been bothering me since I made it. There is just something missing and I don't know what or how to fix it...so I am not going to. There is a lot of intricate work on it and I hope that whoever receives it can appreciate that, even though there is no stamping. I took about 5 different colors of yarn and threaded them through the castle. To hide all the holes I covered them with green glitter. Once again I loved the image so much I didn't want to do anything to it, I just wanted to feature it. I hope that whoever receives these enjoys them. I am not as pleased with them as I was with my Cinderella Castles but that is the way it goes. Hope you enjoy looking and as always I am open to any and all comments. Hugs Caro