A Valentine Doily

Inspiration: Fusion challenge + Festive Friday #51 (hearts + pink + doilies)

Prepare yourself for a very long supplies list for today's card as I pulled out everything but the kitchen sink, it seems. The result doesn't look that layered, but you should see my desk right now: it's covered with various products and tools.

This project started out as a playing session. My only plan initially was to ink blend, add stenciling, embossing and just see what background I would end up with. I started by ink blending three pinkish shades of Distress Oxide inks since Valentine is coming up: Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Aged Mahogany. I tested out the new domed foam applicators from scrapbook.com, which I received a free pack in a previous order. The jury's still out on them: they take ink well, they blend very nicely, their shape does work nicely to avoid harsh lines, but right now I am wondering how they'll hold up over time. If they don't break and get fuzy quickly, I would give them a thumbs up. I only have a pack of ten, so right now, I'm going to do one pad per color family, which means that I shared a same pad for both pink inks. I then used my Manuscript stencil from Finnabair and added Aged Mahogany ink. I used my Clarity stamp stencil brush, hoping to get a soft result and have the details show up well with the soft bristles. As it's been the case whenever I've used those stencil brushes in the past, I was not really impressed with the result. I should have just reached for my Picket Fence blending brushes right away. I then misted my cardstock to oxidize the ink and dried it with my heat tool. I decided I wanted splatters, so I tried smooching some ink on my glass mat, but I didn't get the effect I was hoping for and kind of made a mess of my background with too much water. (I was using Bristol and not watercolor paper.) I didn't want to toss my work, so I dried the paper again and repeated my stenciling. I then used the Drawn Hearts stencil from Simon Says Stamp and using my smallest blending brush, I picked which heart I wanted to stencil and sprinkled hearts around my background. I then went back to wanting speckles, so I pulled out a Distress Oxide spray in Picked Raspberry and took the top off and flicked the spritzer over my paper. I repeated the same step with the Antiqued Bronze DIstress Mica spray, and sprayed it the regular way as well. 

At this point, I started to get inspiration for an actual project. I wanted to add a bit stamped image in the center, embossed in red, so I picked the Hello, Doily background stamp from Stampin' Up!, which I hadn't used in ages, and embossed it in Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. It looked really good against the pink background and I noticed that was I had created looked a lot like the Fusion sketch, so I decided to keep going in that direction. The mica spray had inspired me to add copper foil paper to my project, but when I covered the center of the card, I felt I was losing too much of the pretty doily, so I reverted to vellum. I tried Lawn Fawn's pearlescent vellum, but the shine has green and blue tones to it, which clashes. I tried regular vellum and embossed it for added interest. I picked the Tufted 3D embossing folder, but the design was hardly showing on it. So I pulled out the thicker vellum Stampin' Up! now sell (they call it cardstock vellum) and the result improved. The edges seemed harsh, so I picked a pretty lace trim to add to both sides. Then I looked at sentiment dies and picked "Happy Valentine's Day" in a current die set. I recycled my idea to have copper foil paper here. When I added the die-cut, the card looked too bare, so I decided to go for a heart. I looked through my chipboard pieces and couldn't find a heart in there, so I was trying to remember if I had a Bigz die with hearts to make my own. In the meantime, I remembered I had some cool Folk Hearts dies that wouldn't cut chipboard, but that I could potentially layer instead. After die-cutting one of the hearts, I switched direction again and embossed it with the Scripty 3D embossing folder instead. I used my little blending brush to ink the font in Tattered Rose ink and add a bit of Aged Mahogany to the edges as well. I then pulled out the Alphanumeric Script alphabet dies from Tim Holtz to cut out a "14" to place inside the heart, and I added my die-cut sentiment over it. I finished the card front with a few sequins in matching colors.

As I was about to mount my panel to a card base, I realized the mistake I made when putting everything together. I quickly assessed if I could fix it, but there were too many items already glued in place, so, with a sigh, I decided I would have to live with it. Can you spot the problem?

 

 

 

It might not be obvious because I went back and tried to fix it, but I ended up with my stenciling upside down on the card! Rookie mistake. (Probably doesn't help that I'm fighting a cold today.) My font and hearts were right side up when I started working on my project, but at a certain point, probably when I turned the cardstock around to glue the vellum and lace in place, the panel ended up facing the wrong way and remained like that when I glued my sentiment in place. So in an effort to hide this boo-boo, I pulled out the stencil again and added more hearts. I liked the initial sparse look better, but at least I now have hearts in both directions, which seems more intentional.

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Hello, Doily (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla, Merry Merlot, Copper Foil Paper,
Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Smooth Bristol (Canson)
Ink: Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Aged Mahogany Distress Oxide (Ranger);
VersaMark
Stencils: Drawn Hearts (Simon Says Stamp); Manuscript (Finnabair)
Dies: Folk Hearts (Essentials by Ellen); Alphanumeric Script (Tim Holtz for Sizzix);
Dotted Rectangles (Lawn Fawn); Mots de souhaits (Stampin' Up!)
Embossing Folders: Tufted 3D, Scripty 3D
Accessories: Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Spray, Antiqued Bronze Distress Mica
Spray (Ranger); Domed Foam Applicators (scrapbook.com); Stencil Brush (Clarity Stamp);
Vintage Chic and Pearl Necklace Sequins (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
A2 Bronze Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Emboss Powder (Stampin' Up!)

 

Comments

[Wanda Cullen]

Beautiful Valentine and that doily is a perfect focal point for the sketch layout! Thanks so much for joining us at Fusion!

[Anne Marie Hile]

I would not have noticed your little mistake until you mentioned it, Cindy! I actually think that having some of the hearts upside down looks really fun and fills in the background well. The colors are so gorgeous, too. Just beautiful! Thank you so much for joining us over at the Festive Friday Challenge!