But, Lo, It Is The Day Of Our Man, Shakespeare

Today is celebrated as Shakespeare Day in many countries. Why April 23? Because it's the recorded day of his baptism and his death, some 52 years later in 1616. Shakespeare is one of those writers you either get or you don't. I happen to like his plays and since I skim when I read a lot of the time, I find Shakespeare is easier to comprehend this way. If you read each word, you'll get bogged down, so I highly suggest just trying to read most of it and skip some of it when it doesn't make sense.

get this cute poster here

As an English major in college, I read me some Shakespeare. And I even performed a scene from As You Like It in class with a partner. This was in the 80s when we didn't exactly have instant access to everything. We didn't even have all that many VCRs. I had never seen Shakespeare performed, so I had to go to the listening library, get some honking headphones and listen to an audio tape of the scene I was performing to get the cadence down. It went pretty well and I got an A...just in case you were wondering. 😀

Shakespeare is credited with coining many words and phrases that we still use today, including bandit, unaware, critic and swagger—along with green-eyed monster and in a pickle. If you look here, you can find a lot of great ways Shakespeare had his characters insult each other. From As You Like It, you'll find, "I desire that we be better strangers." Almost doesn't sound like an insult, does it?

If you like the Bard, you can pick up these fun products and more here.

I've a fairy card to share today, in honor of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fairy realm. I used Bristol paper and Distress Oxide Inks to create the background and the oval die cut is the Floral Border from Hero Arts. The mini fairies are dies from Poppy Stamps. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions. I added Stickles to the wings, but the photo doesn't show it. 

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite Shakespeare quotes. "Though she be but little, she is fierce." "Something wicked this way comes." "If music be the food of love, play on." And from A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Happy Friday to thee!

Chark

Lovely Harvest Fairies

I just stumbled onto Crafts & Me, by seeing someone's blog with the DT button for them and checked them out. They have this cool freebie stamp and contest going on on their FB page here. They sell digi stamps and rubber stamps by one of my favorites, Hannah Lynn Designs, and a whole bunch of other artists. Couldn't resist the freebie, by Robin Pushay, though it was a little daunting at first—lots to color.

But in the end, I watched both The Originals (vampires in N'awlins, yes, please) and Downton Abbey (flappers and motorcars for your perusal) and had a ball while I took hours to finish this.

First I used my Prismacolor pencils, then added Tombow markers (which are pretty vivid) and then added fun dots and lines with the white gel pen. Next was some watercolor with one of the light blue Tombow markers for the sky and finally, yes, Stickles! I stickled Star Dust the wings of both fairies as you can see better in the close-up. 

I don't know why I gave the top fairy purple and white striped tights, technically they should've been black and white in homage to Wizard of Oz, but I didn't think. Next time, she's getting Dorothy shoes too with my Xmas Red Stickles.

Happy Tuesday,
Chark

I Like Cake

I admit, I'm a cake person, specifically a cupcake person. Because the ratio of icing to cake is so much better in a cupcake version, am I right? I found this adorable cake digi stamp at A Day For Daisies, and when I won their contest, I got to choose some things from the store. This was one of the stamps I picked. Who doesn't like fairies and cake? No one, that's who!

Here are two versions I colored. The girl on the left has Stickles applied and I used no glitter on the girl on the right. I like the ombre cake well enough, but the pink glitter cake is my fave. 

I think I'll give her a floor to stand on too. Here are the close-ups and you can see the glitter on the pink cake a little better. You can't tell, but I Stickled her wings and the lights too. This image is $4.00, so if you use it just twice on cards, you're already saving money compared to buying them at the store! And if you enter their contest here, with the free image provided, you might just win too and get your own stamps!

Happy Monday!

Chark