Pretty In Pink

         There is a background technique that I have been wanting to try again,( I did a very quick piece a few weeks ago for some ATCs,) since I read "how to" in an article written by Liesbeth Fidder in the March edition of Craft Stamper magazine.The article was titled Paper Blending and the technique involves tearing strips of paper and glueing them onto a piece of card and painting over with a thin coating of guesso which blends the papers together to give a kind of Shabby Chic affect.You can use patterned or printed paper, old book pages or sheet music, or paper with repeat images stamped on it. The rest of the article was about stamping a feature image onto spare card cutting it out and placing it on the background in the desired position and drawing round it with a pencil.The image is then removed and using a paper stump or a Fantastix and Black Soot Distress Ink the pencil line is covered  to create a shadow around the image when it is fixed back in place. The stamp that I have used for my card here is a bit different to the ones Liesbeth used in her feature

but this Art Journey stamp is a favourite of mine, she is such a sweet little girl and I felt that it suited my chosen colour scheme. I used a mixture of patterned and stamped paper for my background, but I think I was a little bit heavy handed with the guesso so I hope you can still see the torn strips in the photo. Once the paint was dry I cut the card to size and stamped parts of a swirly stamp around the edges with Black Soot and then Victorian Velvet Distress inks stamping  some of the ink off onto spare paper first, and then inked the edge with the Victorian Velvet.  I coloured the girl image with Coloursoft pencils before creating the shadow  effect, and fixing it to the card. I stamped the sentiment on an offcut of the paper blended card with Brilliance Lightning Black and edged with Victorian Velvet ink. I punched a small hole in each end and tied a tiny piece of ribbon through, and fixed a piece of lace along the bottom edge. I stamped two little butterflies with the same distress ink onto a scrap of pink paper and cut them out.  In my stash I had some Tim Holtz  Idea-ology Foliage pieces languishing in a box because I like having them, (and am too mean to part with them) I also have two distress embossing powders that haven't been used much. I didn't get on very well with them when I first tried them so they stayed in the drawer.The colours are Milled Lavender and Old Paper which probably matched the first Distress Inks I had.! Anyway I decided to put them together to make an embellishment. I used three different flowers and a leaf. I painted the flowers with white acrylic paint first and then sanded some of it off again, before dabbing with ink and adding the embossing powder and heating it, and then sanding lightly again.
I used both powders for a bit of contrast and was quite pleased with the result this time. I layered the pieces together and fixed the completed flower to the top left hand side with a brad, and the sentiment below it at an angle angle with double sided tape, then the two butterflies with silicon glue for  dimension.I matted the whole panel onto some Black pearly paper and then onto a  folded deeper pink pearlescent card.The background swirls and butterfly stamps are Chocolate Baroque and the sentiment is Crafty Individuals. I am entering this card for the following challenges.


                                                       The Stamp Man Fortnightly Challenge: Anything by Tim
                                                       Make My Monday: Vintage-Torn or Crumpled.(my background)
                                                       Sir Stampalot: Anything Goes
                                                       Oldie But A Goodie: Use lace and Ribbon.