Dragon and Castle Card

I made this card last year but never put it up online.  I've decided to give it to one of my brothers for his birthday, so here it is:

The castle on the hill and dragon are both stamps.  I had to extend the hill and plains forward, so the dragon's sitting on something.  I coloured the image with pencil crayons (even the sky, which is a very faint blue).  This was before I got the pencil crayon blending solution, so you can see streaks in the colouring.  For the dragon's horns, claws, teeth and neck I used black and gold gel pens respectively.

Dragon Birthday

I made this card for Simon Says Stamp's Challenge Blog.  It's their 4th anniversary, and so the theme this week is Happy Birthday.

I started this card with the idea of using my Graphic 45 Bird Song cling #3 stamps.  I'm ashamed to say that though I've had the set for several months this is the first time I've used them.  I love the designs but haven't done much with an Asian theme lately.

I thought either the phoenix or dragon stamp would look fantastic embossed with my holographic embossing powder.  Turns out the stamp is too detailed so it's a bit hard to see what the picture is.  Next time I'll ink the image first in silver or gold and then emboss it.  Still, it's got a fabulous glitter effect in a fascinating mix of green and brown on its black background.

I wanted the sentiment to match and so daubed my bronze and teal metallic pigment inks on a sheet of plastic and then picked up the ink with the stamp (I didn't want to contaminate my stamp pads by using one colour and then the second.  This way I also got some fancy mixing of the colours).

The backing is red cardstock embossed with a Cuttlebug folder from an oriental set I have.