Sunday Stampers Challenge #242

Hello!

This weeks challenge theme is WISH - which is Hels' word for 2013. You can join in the Sunday Stampers Challenge here.

As I said in my WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday) post (here) I was very much inspired by the new Craft Stamper magazine which arrived this week, so my project, my first tag of 2013, is my take on Christine Dark's beautiful "Cut and Collage" wall hanging (pg 8 March issue of Craft Stamper) with a little bit of  Penny Bennington's charcoal shading (CS pg 28) thrown in. Thank you ladies!

Some close ups

I love the effect of the Inka Gold on the edges of the butterfly

This piece really evolved as it went along.

I started off with a greyboard tag (cut with a Movers and Shapers die) which I coated with a thin layer of gesso. I then stamped with a Prima text stamp and Jet Black StazOn at the top left and bottom right to give my first layer (you can JUST see this top right of photo above).

Next came a layer of white tissue paper which I crumpled up and them smoothed out and adhered using matte medium - I wasn't too careful how this was laid down as the extra wrinkles gave more texture.

When this had dried (with a little help from ye olde heat gun) I lightly inked all over with various Distress Inks (listed below) and applied some Vintage Photo around the edge to "frame" the tag (Top Tip - thanks Hels!).

Next came the floral stamp, again in Jet Black StazOn. As I don't have any Distress Markers I used Ranger pen nibs to colour the floral image with more Distress Inks. At this stage I had an "Oh no I don't like it" moment, as the inks I'd chosen for the flowers (Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry (duh)) were too vivid. Thinking  a step ahead I decided that I could tone the colours down with another layer of tissue but that it would give a nice effect if my die cut elements also had the crumpled tissue texture. So I adhered the butterflies with glue stick and then added another layer of crumpled tissue as before.

When this layer had dried, I stamped the butterfly wings with my tiny harlequin stamp in Saddle Brown StazOn. Next I painted the butterflies with slightly diluted Folk Art acrylic in Berry Wine. When this was dry I went carefully around the edges of each butterfly with a charcoal pencil and then used my fingers to blend the charcoal back - this really made the butterflies pop off the page - but the wings still needed a bit of "something" so I rubbed some pale gold Inka Gold around the wing edges, antennae and bodies - perfect!

Finally I printed the text out on the computer, cut it in to strips, lightly inked with Antique Linen to soften the bright white, and ran a Ranger Archival coffee ink pad round the edge for definition. A glue stick, foam pads and a bit of lace finished the project. I do hope you like it!

Those all important details

Stamps

Text - Prima #555146
Flower - Paper Artsy HP1109
Harlequin - unknown

Ink

Background, Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo
Flower, Distress Inks - Forest Moss, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry
Images, StazOn - Jet Black and Saddle Brown

Paint

Plaid Folk Art - Berry Wine

Chipboard

Butterflies - Crafty Bitz

Other

Greyboard, Inka Gold, cotton lace, staples

And finally, because we were discussing how tidy or otherwise our desk are on WOYWW here's a picture of my desk at the end of the project - bit of a difference!

Thanks for looking.