Good bye January! Hello February and yes a new monthly Challenge at Lavinia Stamps. This month’s theme is ‘ somewhere to escape to’ For some inspiration I have created a ‘Northern lights’ type scene. I certainly would love to escape to somewhere like this to see such a beautiful night sky.. maybe one day!

The good news is that the gorgeous fairy stamp is on special offer. I hope you manage to get Shaylee while stocks last. She is a great size.

I have also used some of my favourite foliage Glow flowers and included some Stars too.

As I do quite often I began with a sheet of white card which had been used to wipe up left over ink spray from another project. It left some nice colours which I enhanced with some distress ink.

I identified a horizon line and using a sponge added some pale tones using distress oxide ink and white pigment ink.

To lighten parts of the sky and brighten the foreground I used my Stabilo chalk pastel pencils. These are great for blending on top of dried ink. Once that was done I sealed the work using spray fixative.

I then tore some paper to mask the foreground and blended in black ink to the sky area. Once this was done I added splatters using white ink. I removed the mask and added black around the bottom edges.

The fairy, wings and glow flowers where stamped in place. A shadow was drawn freehand under the fairy using a charcoal and chalk pastel pencils .

Using A white gel pen and a ruler I added stars and then added white to the glow flowers. I also added further colour to the flowers to pick up on the reflected colours from the sky. The fairy was edged in silver using a stardust pen.

Finally I stamped some extra smaller stars using white gouache paint and added diamond stickles for a little bling!

I do hope you get a chance to dream up a place to escape to and join the challenge. As usual there is a £40 LS voucher to the winner. Good luck everyone!

Lisa x