Purple Love

Hello again!  I guess you can tell I've been busy in the Closet.  This time I was experimenting with some new paints I picked up from an artsy friend who is going to focus all of her artistic talents into sewing! Lucky me, I was able to scoop up a bunch of her new, almost unused art supplies she no longer wanted cluttering up her space.

Have you heard about Creative Carte Blanche, the new challenge blog for crafters?  Their mission is to inspire us to approach our art with a sense of freedom and spirit of exploration. This blog was introduced by Linda Ledbetter, and the talented Design Team is made up of the girls from Compendium of Curiosities 3. I recommend popping by and seeing what all the hoopla is about; you won't be disappointed! So that being said, I HAD to try something NEW to me; well, a few things, actually.  There is nothing more inspiring than sitting down with something you never used before and just playing!

This card is actually a store bought invitation which I covered with distressed card stock on the back, and on the front--gesso, Distress paints in Shaded Lilac and Worn Lipstick, distressed papers and a pattern laid down with Hickory Smoke Distress ink and Tim's Dot Fade stencil.

Now here's the "Try Something New" part! Like I said, my friend Sharon was cleaning out, and one of the things I got from her was a brand new set of Reeves Gouache colors. I couldn't wait to use them! Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint--I learned that from my high school art classes, but somehow I had forgotten!  I expected the pigment to be thicker, like an acrylic or even as thick as oil. I was a little disappointed in it's thin consistency, so I added it to Golden gel medium before dragging it across my watercolor paper with a palette knife.  Here's why I wanted it to be thick...I was inspired by Autumn of Sew Paper Paint to scribe into my paint. Be sure to pop over for a visit; her blog is bursting with creativity!  Writing in paint is something I've never done before, and I happen to hate my handwriting. Here's a little secret....in penmanship class in grade school, I would let my sister do my homework for me, because she loved penmanship!  So no practice as a kid, and then years of writing in medical charts makes for poor handwriting. Hey, next to the Doc's, mine looked pretty good!

I digress...Since this is a card for my Mom, I thought she might like to see my handwriting on it. What a fun technique!  I just had to try it, but in my own Sara-style of trying something new.  Unfortunately, I didn't take process photos, because I was just too busy throwing this and that at this background.  But I did take notes.

After drying the gouache/gel medium layer, I used the negative space from Tim Holtz' Heartfelf die and outlined a few of the hearts with a reddish pink water color crayon and spritzed with water and dried with a heat gun. This didn't look so good, so I swiped on distress paints in Shaded Lilac and Worn Lipstick, blended with a spritz of water, placed a paper towel over the surface to absorb the extra water and quickly pulled it off to reveal a lovely subtle texture.  You can barely see a little of this at the top in this photo.

I added some stamping with a Stampin' Up script stamp and Watering Can Archival ink. Next up, I added some embossing using texture paste and Tim's Flourish stencil. Before it fully dried, I sprinkled lightly with Ranger Embossing Glitter Tinsel in Lavender and then thoroughly dried and embossed using a heat gun. Finally, I gave it a spritz of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Viva Pink, then took the lid off and splattered some on with the hose end.

For the embellishments I used three of the Heartfelt die cuts.  I embossed the purple one in Ranger embossing Tinsel Glitter in Lavender (Some of it is chipped off, because Biskit is a thief!  My little kittie loves to prowl my desk and take shiny things.  It took me a 1/2 hour to find this after she took it off to her special hiding place! Needless to say there are teeth marks!) The two smaller hearts are heat embossed in Ranger Embossing Tinsel Glitter in silver, and each of them embossed with embossing folders: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Tim Holtz Damask. Lastly, I swiped on Wilted Violet Distress paint, dried somewhat and wiped back with a towel using Tim Holtz' Industrial technique.

The sentiment is Heartfelt Creations heat embossed with white powder on a scrap of vellum, which I cut into a banner.

 It was really fun to step out and try something new!  Thank you to the Design Team at Creative Carte Blanche and to Autumn for the little nudge.  I hope my Mom loves her purple card--her favorite color, of course!

I would like to enter my Valentine into the following inspiring challenges:

-Creative Carte Blanche February's Adventure Try Something Artistic You've Never Tried Before--Using new medium, writing in medium. 

Frilly and Funkie Enjoy Your Embossing! I heat embossed, pressure embossed, embossed using stencil and paste, then heat embossed again, embossed my sentiment and you might even consider writing into thick medium a form of embossing!

Emerald Creek DaresValentine's Is NOT in the Air I'm going on the grey heart thing...my silver hearts look grey. :)

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Anything Love

-Country View Challenges-February-Make Your Own Background

-Artistic Stamper-February Creative Challenge-HeART Art

-A Vintage Journey Industrial Maybe I needed to go a little grungier?!

--Creative Artiste Challenge 11 Anything Goes With Mixed Media

Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge February 2016-Text Me

Scrapy Land Challenge # 35 Anything Goes I used a Sizzix die--just one of the 40 brands Scrapy Land sells!

Thank you for stopping by and for all your wonderful, encouraging comments!  I read and appreciate each one!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE: My card was a WINNER!

Mom loved it!