Gentle Warrior

Hi guys. Hope you've all been having an amazing week. I've had a lot of time on my hands recently because my husband is doing over-time this week. What this means is "Woo, scraptastic fun times!"

I've been heavily working on my daughter's baby book, a Christmas present for one of my best friends, and single handedly planning a teddy bear picnic birthday extraganza. But enough about all that at the moment.

So this week's post is another Disney(of course it is!) IC, featuring one of the non-Princess Princesses. I know, I know, confusing right? For those who are not complete Disnerds like me, what that means is she is considered a Disney Princess because she meets Disney's strict criteria about what makes a Disney Princess. In Mulan's case, she performs an act of great heroism by saving all of China, thus granting her the honoured title of Disney Princess.

I love Mulan because her struggle to find the balance of what is expected other and following her own heart really resonates with me. It's a constant struggle for a lot of us, but in the words of Mulan's father, "the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all." Mulan overcomes all obstacles that confront her and earns her family lasting honour.

For this IC, I went very textured. I wanted to portray both sides of her nature. Firstly, l added texture to the card using texture paste and Tim Holtz honeycomb stencil. Then l coloured the background with Tim Holtz Distress Spray stains. I then went on to colour some tissue paper to make the leaves of her comb, a paint chip to form the base of the comb and white Card and gold pen to create the flower. The helmet was torn from black patterned papers, and the sword cut from vellum. From there it was just a process of gluing things in place.

The quotes for each of my Disney cards are taken from the songs that I feel are most indicative of the Princesses character. For Mulan, it is the song "Reflection". It is where she is asking herself who she really is, questioning what defines her, and coming to terms with the fact that she cannot live up to the expectations of her family and her society, and still be true to who she is.

And that's it for this week! I hope you're enjoying the pieces that I'm sharing with you and giving you an insight into my creative processes. Have a fantabulous week and see you soon!

T xxx