Flowers for a Lady - my stab at shabby chic

Hello Everyone

I hope you all had a first-rate weekend and woke up this morning all rested and raring to go. It's turned cold here where we are and even with the central heating belting out all day it's still a tad chilly - glad I didn't have to go out and my sympathy goes out to all of you who did. One of the jobs I had on my to-do list for today was to photograph this card made yesterday. There's very little good natural daylight in this part of the world at the moment so I try to photograph mid morning if at all possible. Anyway, here it is.

It's my attempt at the shabby chic style, made entirely from my vast stash reserves - yes folks, no new items were bought for the making of this card :)) I've covered a large white shaped base card with some beautiful paper I have had in my stash for about two years now. It's another one of those impulse buys I'm prone too, but again it's unmarked so I can't attribute it to any maker :( I positioned the paper so that the lovely bird would be kept in it's entirety ... it would have been such a shame to cut through it. I inked the edge with Old Paper DI to give it an aged look and did the same with the heart-shaped doily, after which I sprinkled some transparent crystal EP to give it a bit of a sparkle.

The stamped postcard topper came from the stack I coloured whilst on holiday in Wales last year ... and there's still more to use yet! Stamped on watercolour card, it's coloured with Aquamarkers and, after distressing around the edges with scissors (haven't got one of those dinky wee distressing gadgets yet - it's on my wishlist)  it's edged with Old Paper too.  The same treatment was meted out to the  lovely lady topper taken from a collage sheet by madebyjanet  which was then matted on to a piece of lemon card found in the snippet pile, the edges of which were similarly treated to distressing and Old Paper ink.

The floral embellishments are made from a mixture of Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts flowers and leaves - they've just been smeared with clear gloss and dipped into iridescent glitter. The large spray has a spray of crystals included and a stray yellow lily from who knows where - possibly The Works. I've had it so long I just can't remember. I keep saying I am still a novice to scrapping and cardmaking but there are neglected items in my stash that go way back ... hangs head in shame :(

The inside

and back are decorated with elements cut from what was left of the design paper.

Materials used:


- 8" white shaped card base - Kanban
- Design paper - producer unknown
- Heart-shaped paper doily - Poppy's Cabin
- Crystal transparent EP - Stampendous 
- VersaMark
- Stamp - Crafty Individuals, CI-302
- Inks - Archival black; Tim Holtz, Old Paper DI
- Aquamarkers - Straw Yellow, Gold Ochre, Sepia, Royal Purple
- Card - Watercolour card; yellow card
- Digital Topper - My Melody collage sheet from Made By Janet
- Flowers: Prima Shabby Chic Solid; Wild Orchid Crafts - cherry blossom, tulips, crystal spray
- Butterfly peel-off from stash.

I'd like to welcome my newest followers: Shatril, Chris, Cindy and Sandra - nice to see you here and I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my wee blog.

Like a lot of you I have been experiencing difficulty when trying to leave comments on your blogs. However, after swapping over and using Google Chrome for a web browser I am now able to leave comments. It's not ideal but until Windows/Blogger (whoever is responsible) sorts the issue out it will do nicely. Somebody did suggest that it was only the embedded comment facility that was the problem so I've tweaked mine and hopefully we are now good to go.

I'm going to trust that I've not made too many errors in typing this as I haven't got time to proof it - my dinner is on the table!

Edited Note: I rushed off so quickly I forgot to mention that I was entering this card for the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create Challenge #36 - Butterflies - with two butterflies I think this card might qualify for this challenge.
and
Scrap Our Stash Challenge - the theme for January is NEW and the shabby chic style is definitely a new style for me. Scrap Our Stash, run by Kathy, is a challenge blog designed to have us use our stash, so it fits in well with those of us who have taken the Use-It-Up pledge :)  The Monthly Challenge goes from the 1st to the last day of the month. The Design Team and Guest Design Team Members, of which I am currently one, or Readers' projects are posted daily for inspiration. You might think from the name that only scrappers get involved in the challenges ... not so, my first challenge entry was a card! Apart from the  Monthly Challenge - new theme each month - there's a Pagerize This Challenge, a Frugal Friday Tip and Show N' Tell Sunday. If you are determined to use up your stash this year check this challenge out and perhaps you will join in the fun.

Now I really have finished :))

Take care all and happy crafting,