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Friday, June 24, 2016

Pinks and Pearls

Hello everyone!  I hope you are enjoying the beginning of a wonderful summer (at least in the northern hemisphere) weekend.  I'm back with a project that was a bit of a stretch for my creative muscles.  It was so much outside my wheelhouse that I might as well have started practicing Zero-Gravity maneuvers.  I really felt like I was in outer space at times.  I think I stressed more over the details on this card than I ever have on any other project.


The inspiration for this card started with some sales purchases that I made at Michaels craft store.  I found the Recollections diecut butterfly/flower tag, Heidi Swapp pink plaid tape, and Wish wood embellishment and thought they would look great on a birthday card.  Also during this time, I was playing with Distress Crackle Paint and Perfect Pearls for Tim Holtz's Summer of Creative Chemistry and here is the result of that  perfect storm :)


I began by giving the non-diecut part of the tag and Wish wood cutout a good coat of Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint.  It pained me to let it dry naturally, but the crackle finish that you get when you don't use the heat tool is wonderful.  While that dried, I worked on the background for my card.  I gave the whole background a coat of Old Paper Distress Ink.  Then I added the Heidi Swapp pink plaid tape at the top.  I stamped the Recollections doily with Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Once that dried, I used a Wild Honey and Walnut Stain Distress Ink over the entire background.  It was a bit too dark for I wanted.  So I ended up giving the entire background a wash of watered down Antique Linen Paint.   I brought out some of the details of the doilies with a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker.  The edges of the background were distressed and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.


Next I grabbed my tag and began to give it some color.  I used Scattered Straw and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Then I used a Waterbrush to mix Gumball Perfect Pearls and Spun Sugar Distress Ink and washed pearly mixture over some areas of my crackled paint.  You can't really see it on the tag in the picture above, but you can see the pearly wash a little better on the Wish wood piece below.  I used a thicker version of this mixture on the butterfly die cut.  I gave it two coats and then went over  the entire butterfly with Glossy Accents.   The butterfly got it's very own flower that I found in my stash.  I mixed Broken China with with a blue Perfect Pearl and applied it to the petals with the waterbrush.  When that dried, I added some Walnut Stain Distress Ink with water brush over the top of all the petals.  The diecut flowers on the tag were treated similarly (see below) with a mixture of Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls and Wild Honey Distress Ink.  Gorgeous sheen!!  Again I used Glossy Accents to cover the diecut flowers and adhere the pearl flower centers.  The entire tag was grunged with some Walnut Stain Distress Paint and Distress Marker.  The tag was finally topped with a sage green velvet ribbon.


I love how the grunged Wish turned out.  The juxtaposition of the pearled pink with with grungy Walnut Stain and white crackle paint is seriously one of my favorite finishes.  The tiny metal butterfly was another stash find.  It was given a layered Distress Paint treatment in Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage and Walnut Stain.  He has a beautiful pearl and rhinestone sticker flight path to follow when he decides to jump off of the "h".


 I found several ribbons an trimmings in my stash (including some pink pearls) to go with my Pinks and Pearls theme.  It really took me forever to figure out where to place things on this piece to keep a balance of texture, color and shape.  Whew!!  Finally ... it's finished!


Thanks for walking along this journey with me.  It was definitely a learning process.  I envy those of you who can create amazingly romantic, layered cards in your sleep.  You guys are rock stars!!!

I'm going to enter this in the following challenges:
Frilly and Funkie's Pastels and Pearls Challenge
Tuesday Throwdown's Tuesday Throwdown 299 Distressing Challenge

Well, back to work.  Have a great weekend!  -- Mary Elizabeth 


9 comments:

Cec said...

Very pretty with lots of wonderful texture. Thanks for joining us at Frilly and Funkie.
Hugs!
Cec

Brenda Brown said...

I love the results of that storm you cooked up, lots of wonderful crackle texture combined with those pretty elements and colours sure resulted in a beautiful card Mary Elizabeth and I hope the gorgeous result de-stressed you, love it xxx

Barbara said...

HAppy to see that you're unstoppable! this work is so sweet with this vintage colors !Beautiful work! barbara

Redanne said...

I don't feel any storms but you sure did put together a stunning piece of work Mary Elizabeth! I just love the beautiful 'wish' die cut and it looks fabulous with the crackling. I also love how you added so many 'tactile' elements, I can just imagine how wonderful it must all feel. You did a brilliant job!

Thank you too, for your visit and lovely comments, I really do appreciate it very much. Big hugs, Anne xx

SewPaperPaint said...

I enjoyed reading your process and hearing your thoughts on mixed media. We all have those projects that we stress over, but the end result of this one is fantastic! Keep on playing and stretching and find out what exactly you love and then run wild with it! Big hugs, Autumn

Debi said...

This is just lovely. Great rustic look. Thanks for sharing it with us at Tuesday Throwdown Challenge. Good luck. Thanks Debi TT DT

Words and Pictures said...

A walk outside one's comfort zone does one good occasionally - so I applaud you for that for starters. There's so much textural detail here, from the different materials and pearly embellishments (love that swirl of movement) to that sensational crackle. The weathering on the word WISH looks simply amazing.
Alison x

sarascloset said...

Well, I was beginning to wonder about you! I finally found out that your blog posts are being delivered to the promotions folder in my inbox! What the????

Anywho, your card turned out amazing, and that wish chippie is the icing on the cake! All of your crackle turned out wonderfully and I love that worn shabby look of the pink and the browns. Ohhhh, so pretty! Just a delightful card! And now I'm off to see what else I've missed! Hugs!

Jenny Marples said...

Loving the textures and layering on this Mary Elizabeth! Thank you for joining us at Frilly and Funkie xx