Shabby Chic..Helen style!

_MG_1961 (Medium) Before I start this morning I just want to let my American followers know I am thinking of them all, the ones in the East who are battling with Fire, and the ones down south who are battling with the aftermath of one Hurricane and bracing for more…my thoughts are with you all.

I am determined to master Shabby Chic. I love shabby, but I am struggling to get to the point where I can say I have succeeded, but I will continue to practise, and show you my progress. This card has a lot of product but a lot of it was put together with bits and pieces left on my work table from other projects so i didn’t prepare anything new for this project except for the background layer which was a piece of A4 white cardstock. I painted it with a light watered down layer of Gesso,and used a texture template to add some Liquitex Light modelling paste. When that was dry I tapped some tea dye distress ink over the raised bits and sprayed randomly over the whole piece with Prima Color Bloom Cotton candy spray mist. All that remained for this step was to cut to size, distress all the edges and ink with more tea dye distress ink and attach to the card front. decorating…. a strip of lace under one of the layers, a Prima Bird, a flower made with sizzix bigz 3d flower die and old book pages, memory box Lorelai leaves die,kaisercraft wooden flourish foiled in silver, pearls , Prima hessian leaf,and flowers. Til tomorrow…..

Prima Divine number 5

IMG_8860 (Medium)Very quick post tonight as I haven’t started tea yet! We are sticking with the Prima Divine a4 paper pad , and I have used one of the chipboard pieces with this card. I matted a couple of layers of the paper, and distressed all the edges with my martha Stewart distressing tool. Ink used is Tea dye distress ink. I added a trio of flowers at the bottom of the card, picking out the colours in the dress.The sentiment is a stampin up stamp.Til tomorrow….

Echo park love story – not so shabby…

IMG_3656 (Medium)I only bought a few 12 x 12 sheets from this range of paper – Echo Park Love story – and have only made a few cards with it so far – I have put it aside for now to work on some classes, but I thought I would show you what I have created so far. I used a base of black cardstock, and layered a couple of the papers on top – after distressing and inking the edges. I then raided my bits and pieces drawer, and found this chipboard dress formĀ  and crown which I decorated.I inked a doily, and added it, as well as a seam binding bow. I made the flower by folding a length of netting in half lengthways and sewing a running stitch along the raw edge before pulling the thread to gather it. I threaded a brad ( kaisercraft) through the centre. These are amazingly easy to make, and I am going to sit in front of the t.v. tonight and make some more!This style is my cleaned up take on shabby chic, and it’s my favourite at the moment, so I think my ladies will be making some cards in April to this style too! Til tomorrow….