The Making of a Fairy Cover

Do you remember the Fairy Queen I was working on for a Fold-Out paper doll play set I'm designing? Well, the cover of the playset is coming together, and here is a run-down of how we got to the final point. As I've been super busy, I suggested to the talented illustrator, Amy Saidens, that she show me an initial concept incorporating some of the fairy paper dolls and one of the three scenes that will be used in the interior of the play set. She came up with this:

I thought it was really cute, and although it was totally pink and purple fairy sweet, I thought it lacked a little umpf. Also, it seemed that the fairy's wings were not prominent enough.

One of the other interior scenes looked like this:

I liked it because it seemed like a slightly more impish setting. So, I created a quick cover idea for her to try:

The artist came back with this, using one of the fairy paper dolls on the interior:

Not quite right. The outfit of the fairy had less impact (definitely needed more red), and her wings were too subtle. Also, too many leaves at top now. So, she back-tracked a bit, and created the art that will now be used on the final cover:

I love that the opened the sitting fairy's eyes, and she re-sized the playful boy fairy in the background. She also changed the shape of the trees, and lowered the sitting fairy. I love this cover now, and would definitely have loved to play with this when I was little! What do you think of the cover...yay, or nay? OR, did you prefer the original garden scene?