Just The Two Of Us x

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I am so excited and honoured to have been asked to be Guest Designer for the fantastic challenge blog Frilly and Funkie this month and design a project for their current challenge which has the theme Valentines day with a twist the twist being  there can be no hearts! colours to be used are the traditional red, white, and pink.  I had to really use the old grey matter on this project, and I  was thinking of what was going on in my head when I thought of Valentines day and my DH. 

We are going to celebrate our 30th (Pearl) Wedding anniversary this year so wanted pearls to feature somewhere, we both love birds, and as we have never been blessed with children, it is just the two of us hence the title for this piece.

 

 

 This is quite a picture heavy post as I have done a step by step so you could have a go at something similar. I must apologise for the quality of some of the photos, I was making up the project last week and the days were very dark so getting a good photo was difficult to say the least.  By the time the project was finished, the sun came out for 5 minutes so the completed pictures are much brighter.  Please click on the photos for a closer look.  I have done it as a small wall hanger but it could be adapted to a card quite easily so here we go.

 

 First Distress card with Victorian Velvet DI, then stamp over this with Maroon Archival Ink.

I wanted another layer and saw a brilliant detailed video by the very talented Jenny (Buttons) on how to colour your texture paste  with archival re-inkers check it out HERE.  I have not got any archival re-inkers so I just dabbed my pad onto the craft sheet and mixed some texture paste into it.  I don't think you can get the intensity of colour that Jenny did on the video, but it gave me a soft subtle pink I needed for this project.

Remember to tape down your stencil over the card so it doesn't slip

(the more observant of you will notice I took the photo before stamping the card).

 The effect is lovely don't you think?

 Next I took a small canvas and went around the edges with Victorian Velvet distress stain (about an inch in from the edge), I placed the Tim Holtz Bubbles stencil over it to texture the coloured edges  this time keeping the embossing paste white.  When dry, I went around the very edges of the card and the canvas with Festive Berries distress paint to give it a tiny border

The Card was then layered onto the canvas. I punched two holes in the top of the canvas with a cropadile and added eyelets for a ribbon.

I cut 2 die cuts from the Ornate Frames Bigz die. The first one was embossed with Aged Rose Frantage embossing enamel  and the second one was painted with Festive Berries Distress Paint.  

 

I also painted the centre oval from one of the frames and an on the edge doily again with Festive Berries, and then stamped over with Maroon archival using the Indigo Blu baroque bauble.  The frames were layered up slightly offset, and the doily attached to the base.

 All these elements were then mounted onto the base and adhesive pearls were added
 

 The birds came from a Creatables die (I think its called Winter Birds) and these were given a coat of distress crackle Rock Candy.  The edges of the birds were inked with a little weathered wood DI to give a shading.

I took some copy paper and smooched it through some distress stains on a craft mat to get some colour onto it, the when dry, die cut flower swirls (I only needed 3 but I got a bit carried away cutting as many as I could to use on later projects).

 

Using a quilling tool, I curled them up and gently curled each petal back 

Gluing 3 together onto a small punched circle of card.
  

 I die cut a couple of leaves and added some glossy accents raindrops onto the roses

 

 

My cricut came to the rescue again for the sentiment, together with a couple of chit chat stickers, and I threaded an organza ribbon through the eyelets for the hanger, with matching bow and pearl drop

 

 

 I would like to thank everyone who has dropped by to have a closer look at my Valentine hanger and hope it has inspired a few of you to have a go  with some of the techniques.
 

If you haven't already done so, pop over to the Frilly and Funkie  blog to see the inspirational projects the design team have made.  Do join in the challenge if you can, they want to see vintage or shabby chic projects in the traditional red, pink and white but remember
 the twist is that there can be no hearts.  If you are chosen as our winner by the team, like me, you could be invited to be the next Guest Designer. There is also the chance to win a $25 shopping spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique for one lucky entrant chosen at random.
 

Hugs Mo x