In the Pink

Hello Everyone

I hope you had a good weekend and the windy weather hasn't blown you around too much.  Thank you to everyone for your Congratulations on my winning entry for Tim's January Tag, I was so happy to get this as it has boosted my confidence again after my long break from my blog last year, enough to have a try another challenge over at Country View Crafts where their February challenge is make your own backgrounds you can see all the details Here

With this in mind I  have made a few cards with backgrounds I created using  mainly Pink & Red! What! anyone who knows me will tell you I don't do pink and I do very little Red in my projects but with valentines around the corner everywhere you look is pink and red so I thought get out of the comfort zone (not for the first time this year) and just do it.  Before I show you the how to, I thought you might like to see the finished cards.

OK not a lot of red, but keep reading and you will see I did use it! The cards were based around two master boards made up for the background using Fresco acrylics Vintage Lace, Sage and Elephant. 

I  brayered them onto an A4 sheet and then as I did not have a deeper pink, I  used a mix of Nougat and London Bus (Ah! there's the Red:) to make one. 

I used this colour with a paint lid to stamp out rings all over the sheet. As I ran out of the paint and remixed the colour it was much lighter with the next set of rings, but I quite liked the graduated look that it gave so I purposely made the third mix lighter still.  I continued to do smaller and smaller circles using lighter colours until I was happy.

The second board was made up of the same colours, but I used a distress tool and pad to dab the paint all over the sheet, lightest colour first through to darkest.

I then used white embossing paste through the Tim Holtz doily stencil and let it dry.

Next came the fun part, making the cards, for the first one I was asked by a friend to make a Valentines card  for his wife so the heart was an obvious choice.

Here is a close up, you can see I have had my sewing machine out for the edges and the hand cut  heart. The little fabric roses and the birdcage were off a head band and a cheap charm bracelet both 50p car boot sale finds last summer.  The vines were a purchase which I have had for a while now, and of course the Large arrow is Tim Holtz .  I used frayed muslin to lift it off the background a little and finished it with a chit chat sticker. 



Number two came from a need to use the Mixed Media thinlits die set that I purchased in the CVC Christmas sale.  I kept it simple just cutting a square piece of my background and using one of the dies on each corner.

I used textured card underneath the framework of the die cut for a bit of interest. The butterfly is cut using a Craftables die and is backed with the circles background and finished of with pearls.  The sentiment is part of a set from Woodware, I just thought it was a nice size  for this card.

The last card is my favourite, This was the first one that I used my sewing machine on as you can tell by the uneven stitching to the right, but I think I get away with it, it is SHABBY Chic after all.

I used simple saying stamp for the sentiment, and just dabbed a little white gesso on the wooden butterfly.  If you look close, you may see a little of the frayed muslin peeking out from the torn edges in the centre.

The flowers are a mix of hand made tattered florals and one or two shop bought.

The softer flowers around the edge are from anna marie designs, I have had these a while too but I think they still stock them.

It is so good to get back in to the swing in my craft room, and I have been helped by the encouragement of the comments left by you, my bloggy friends so would love you to leave me some more and let me know what you think of my cards. Thank you so much as always for your visit.  

Bye Bye for now

Mo x