Merida The Brave in Punch Art

Last weekend, it was my little granddaughter, Cedar's fourth birthday! She is a big Disney Princess fan and I think she may have all the princess dresses there are to have, and frequently wears about 3 or 4 at a time in layers! One of her favourite princesses is Merida, from the Disney animated movie, Brave.

Merida, in case you haven't watched the show, is a medieval Highland princess, who has to save her mother by fighting the deadly bear using her skill with a bow and arrow, which, by the way, she also uses to prevent herself from being married off to one of a handful of second rate Highland princes competing in an archery contest for her hand. Cedar just loves her spunk and spirit, which is understandable, since Cedar definitely has a lot of spunk and spirit herself!!

In fact, you can see her above left in her Halloween costumer as none other than Merida herself.

So I wanted to make a card for her birthday featuring Merida the Brave, but I wasn't sure how I was going to do that. I was pretty sure none of our current stamps would work, even modified a bit, so I settled on using some punch art for the creation.

I checked Pinterest and Google images to see if I could find someone who had already figured it all out, but didn't find anything worthwhile, so decided it was up to me and sat down for an afternoon of creativity. The head and dress, arms, feet and quiver, even the bow were fairly easy to figure out. But it was the eyes and Merida's signature flaming red flyaway hair that presented the main problem. I used the Owl Builder Punch for the eyes, but had to trim them down to a more almond shape rather than round. I used the White Stampin' Chalk Marker to add the highlights in her eyes to give her more life and spunk! I also used the Owl Builder Punch for the bodice of her dress. Although the Owl Builder Punch is now retired, I kept it because it is so useful for punch art, especially for eyes. Another retired punch that played a big part in this creation is the Word Window Punch - perfect for arms, legs, hands, shoes - and quivers!

We were going to buy this for Cedar's birthday, but her auntie beat us to it!

Now the hair! I used the Tree Builder Punch. The tree foliage gave the basic shape to her hair, punched out several times in Calypso Coral and Tangerine Tango. Then for the flyaway curls, I used the Fox Builder Punch with the fox tail, gluing it on in different directions, and layering the two colours. Finally, for those tighter corkscrew curls, I used the retiring Ticket Tear Border punch and punched out both sides of a 1/4" width of cardstock. It looks fairly convincing. Merida's nose was also from the Fox Builder Punch. All the pieces were sponged to give them dimension and definition.

The background paper is from the Myths and Magic Specialty Designer Series Paper, which unfortunately, is now all sold out, but it was perfect for this card. From another couple of scrap pieces of the same series, I fussy cut the castle and the horse, which has some similarity to Merida's horse, Angus, and added them to the background.

I had so much fun with this design, and Cedar loved the card - even more than the gift we gave her. Here she is admiring the card:

I hate to nag, but there are only two weeks left to be able to purchase from the 2017/18 Annual Catalogue and from the 2018 Occasions Catalogue. After that, any retiring items from either catalogue will be gone for good, unorderable, kaput, unobtainable!! That includes all of the bundles, even if the stamps and the dies will be remaining in the catalogue. This will be your last opportunity to bundle them and save 10%! 

Also, just a heads up, if you want to save money, I'm going to suggest that you stock up now on basics such as paper, ink and adhesives. Just sayin'!!

I'll be definitely putting in an order around May 30 or so and depending on the quantity, maybe before then, so contact me if you want your order included to reduce shipping costs. Or you can shop online yourself at my On-Line Store.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today. 

Product List

Emerald Envy 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141415] $10.00	Myths & Magic Specialty Designer Series Paper [145600] $17.00	Pink Pirouette 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [111351] $10.00	Calypso Coral 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [122925] $10.00	Tangerine Tango 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [111349] $10.00
Marina Mist 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119682] $10.00	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318] $10.00	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $10.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $11.25	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad [126956] $8.50
Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad [126962] $8.50	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978] $8.50	Basic Black Baker's Twine [134576] $4.00	Journaling Pens [145480] $6.75	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50
Builder Owl Punch [118074] $23.50	Fox Builder Punch [141470] $23.50	Tree Builder Punch [138295] $23.50	Window Word Punch [119857] $20.00	Ticket Tear Border Punch [143718] $21.50
Stamping Sponges [141337] $4.75	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	Glue Dots [103683] $7.00	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00