Can This Mess Be Saved?

I remember from years ago a regular feature in a woman's magazine called "Can This Marriage Be Saved?". While this is not nearly as serious as that, sometimes I wonder if I can salvage some of the messes I create.

This started out as a blank canvas and as usual, I had no idea where I was  going with it. I started gluing down some random pieces of torn newspaper and messing around with paint and stencils. At this point, it looks like it's ready for the trash bin! Now there are times when I will give up on a card, but I figure that if I just keep going, I can always rescue a canvas. 

I soldiered on, adding more layers of paint, glaze, and stenciling. When I was happy with the background, I had to figure out what the point of the canvas would be. I had a new set of bird stamps (Ranger Dina Wakley Scribbly Birds) that I was anxious to use, so I decided my canvas needed a bird. I stamped the bird on watercolor paper with Ranger Archival black ink and colored it with watered down Distress Inks. Then I cut around the body (I didn't try to save the legs since they'd be almost impossible to cut out). I had some newspaper that had been used to protect my work surface when spraying inks, so I die cut some leaves using Tim Holtz' Tattered Leaves. I glued them down starting at the top left corner, trying to create the impression of falling leaves. I freehand sketched a branch as a perch for my bird and filled it in with some brown paint, then glued the bird down allowing the tail to hang off the edge of the canvas.

I chose a scripture from Psalm 98:1, stamping each letter with an alphabet set I've got. After cutting all the letters out, I glued them into place and called it finished. I hope you enjoyed this - it was a lot of fun to see it finally come together!

I'm linking this up to the current Craft Stamper Magazine's "Colour" challenge. Wish me luck!

Immi

Monochromatic Card

I spent some time this weekend working on a couple of monochromatic cards, inspired by the current Muse  #113 challenge.

I started with a smooth white cardstock panel, and several shades of blue dye ink. I used Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue, and Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue, Not Quite Navy, and Ballet Blue. I inked up some circle stamps from Hero Arts (Box of Dots) and an old Stampin' Up! circle that was part of a set of shapes. After stamping the circles, I used a hero Arts stamp called Silhouette Burst and stamped it three times with Hero Arts Black dye ink. At this point, I didn't really like what I had and I set it aside to work on something else. 

Later, I spotted a piece of vellum and tried layering it over my stamped panel. I thought it really improved the way it looked. I decided to try finishing the card to see if I could make it work out. I stamped the sentiment (Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Simple Sayings) with Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink and covered it with white embossing powder. I thought this particular sentiment went so well with the image which reminds me of a dandelion. I'm sure we've all had the experience of making a wish and trying to blow all the seeds off a fluffy white dandelion!

After melting the powder with my heat tool, I cut the strip with a notch on the end and stitched it along with the vellum on top of the white stamped panel. I pulled out my scraps and found three butterflies punched from various scraps of blue cardstock (using a Martha Stewart punch). 

I thought it would be good to gussy them up a little, so I chose a 7 Gypsies stamp set called Lillie that had a couple of different script stamps as well as a music stamp. I did all three butterflies with Stampin' Up!'s Not Quite Navy ink, and glued them down on top of the vellum. For a little extra touch, I coated all three with Glossy Accents - I hope you can see the shine. Here's a closeup:

I'm glad I didn't give up on this card (although I'm not opposed to giving up if it's clearly a lost cause!).

Here is the inspiration card that got me started:

Happy crafting!

Immi

All Layered Up

Hello! I'm popping in today with a quick post, linking to a new challenge. Virginia's View has a challenge to use layers or dimension, and this card I made a while ago seemed to fit the bill.

I started with a panel of watercolor paper and a striped background stamp from Stampin' Up! I inked it with Distress Ink, then spritzed the stamp with water before pressing the paper over the stamp. The flower stamp is called Hollyhocks from Prickley Pear. It's stamped with black Archival ink on watercolor paper, and colored with watered down Distress Inks, then torn roughly around the image. I mounted it onto the striped panel, then went to work on the sentiment.

The word "celebrate" is from Altenew's Label Love, stamped in black and trimmed with a small white border. That is mounted onto the striped panel with some foam tape to help it stand out a little bit. Before sticking it down, I made some messy loops with thin gold thread, and used the foam tape to hold it in place. Everything is then mounted onto a navy cardstock base.

I hope your week is going well!

Immi