Secret Poppy

After spending far too long on Pinterest the other evening, I was reminded of a technique I've not used for some time, so thinking cap on, off to the craft room I went and got the paint out.

I started with a piece of white card 10cm square and painted it with Fresco Chalk paint in slate. Once dry wiped it over with an anti-static bag and stamped the images in versa-mark and embossed with clear powder.

The stamps I used were all from Lavinia's range; secret garden, fuchsia, small path and the foliage stamp from the magazine freebie set.

Next I painted the whole piece again in a mix of Hint of Mint and Guacamole, then when just touch dry wiped it over with a piece of damp kitchen paper. This reveals the clear embossed art work underneath.

I had also stamped the gate on another piece of painted card so that I could open the gate and stick another one onto the back.

Various areas of the clear embossing were then lightly rubbed with treasure gold in ruby and olive bronze and also metallic lustre in black shimmer.

Then I stamped the poppy in black archival ink onto some shrink plastic, once dry turned the plastic over and coloured in the stamped image with Promarker pens. This was then cut out and heated.

In the opening of the gate I stuck a piece of lightly patterned paper then mounted the whole piece onto some glossy black card. 

I cut 4 corners from the same black card and then mounted the whole piece onto a burgundy coloured card. A black pearl gem was added to the gate to form a handle.

I would like to enter this into Lavinia Stamps challenge no 7 titled 'Add a Flower'. To view the DT's wonderful samples for this challenge click on the link here.

Thanks as always for stopping by, hope this might inspire you to get 'painty' too. Take care and have a great week, Jane x

The Embroidery Bug !

Good evening, hope you had a great weekend perhaps watching the tennis or maybe like us joining the family for a BBQ. Well in-between gardening, making salads and visiting I decided to get the embroidery threads out again and here is my entry for Crafty Individuals July Challenge titled 'Face Value', to view Florence's gorgeous samples and the other entries click on the link here.

To begin with I stamped CI 378 onto a piece of calico that had some iron-on interfacing on the back. I  used Archival Sepia ink and wiped as much ink as I could off of the bird before stamping onto the material.

I then embroidered the leaves and flowers on the centre of the frame. 

Pearls and beads were then added to the hanging chains.

Next I stamped the bird onto white card in VersaFine Onyx Black and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

The crown was stamped again on another piece of white card and embossed using platinum embossing powder.

Both the bird and the crown were then cut out.

The frame was cut from some darkish green textured card, lightly sanded, the corners then stamped with one of CI lovely freebies and embossed with clear embossing powder. small areas were lightly rubbed with Treasure Gold wax in Olive Bronze.

The embroidery was then attached to the back of the frame, a small amount of toy stuffing was added to the back of the material so as to give a slight 'domed' effect, then the whole art work was mounted onto some cream coloured card before adding it to a kraft card.

Finally the crown was stuck onto the bird and the bird attached to the embroidery as in the original stamp.

I am very pleased with how this has turned out, I love the different textures and I will be experimenting further with stamping and embroidery.

Thanks as always for stopping by and reading this blog and all comments are much appreciated. Take care and enjoy your week, Jane x