Vintage Floral Mother’s Day Card

The current challenge over at Perfectly Rustics is the try a new technique. (http://perfectlyrustics.com/2015/04/20/prdc-no-46-new-technique/)

For this card, I tried a new technique for my background panel that I saw on StampTV called “Scrappy Background” which you can see HERE.  Basically, you cut strips of paper, and arrange them in a perpendicular pattern with a thin space between them.  In the tutorial, Gina uses a variety of patterned paper scraps.  My pieces are all the same pattern.  I started with a piece of paper from the Momenta “Songbird” 12×12 inch paper pad (which was white and gray) and sponged Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink on the whole surface (to match my focal image panel).  I cut 3/4 inch strips and arranged them on a piece of Gina K Dark Sage card stock.  Once all my strips were attached and the edges trimmed, I matted the panel on another piece of Dark Sage card stock.  I thought this looked kind of cool because it appears that I measured (perfectly!) the edges to leave a border around the outside to match the spaces throughout the pattern.

One of the things that frustrates me is that I have a room full of paper (I am running out of places to put it!!), and yet I can never seem to find paper to match my projects when I am working on them.  That was the case with this project.  I had completed my focal panel, and then I could not figure out what to do with it because nothing seemed to match it!  (Mental note – choose papers first and then color the images! Seems obvious, but I never do that!  The other thing I always forget is that different surfaces and papers take ink differently so even using the same color ink doesn’t always look exactly the same.) Anyway, I found the printed paper that had very little color and inked it to match (or at least complement!) my focal panel.  It was still pretty boring as one whole piece, but the Scrappy Background technique added a bit more interest.  If I had multiple matching papers, I may have tried it with several patterns, but as I said, finding one was a challenge!  I kind of like the single pattern on this card, though.  (Next time, I’ll try several patterns!)

The focal panel was made with an Inkadinkado large background stamp called “Floral Wood Cut” stamped on Strathmore Mixed Media paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  The darker parts of the flowers were first colored with a Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany distress marker, and then they were “water colored” with plain water and a brush to fill in and blend them.  The leaves were colored with a Peeled Paint distress ink marker, and the edges were water colored with peeled paint ink and water.  Once that dried, I sponged over the entire panel with the Tea Dye distress ink.  This panel was mounted on a piece of the Dark Sage card stock.  (I used the mixed media paper because my water color paper is textured, and I was having trouble stamping my image on it.  This image is very subtle with lots of shading and I needed a smooth surface.  Since I planned to water color my images, I wanted a paper that could handle the water.  This was my first time using the mixed media paper, and it worked well!)

For my greeting, I used a scrap of the paper I used for my scrappy background.  The greeting was from the Spellbinders “Matching Clear Stamps – Label Accents” (which matches their Labels 2,4, and 8 die sets) and was heat embossed with Stampendous Garnet embossing powder and versamark ink.  I cut this piece out with an oval die from the Spellbinders “Fancy Frame Tags Two” die set and tucked it behind a metal Tim Holtz idea-ology ornate plate.

To complement the flowers, I cut burgundy mats from the Recollections “Habitat” 12×12 paper pad and inked over them with a bit of the Aged Mahogany ink to get the colors closer.

Finally, I used Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany distress stain to color some “Hug Snug” seam binding to create the crinkle ribbon for my bow.

If you’d like to try a new technique and share your project over at Perfectly Rustics, I’d love to see it!

Thanks for checking out my card project!