Viva La Verve - Red Room

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I've been missing my Viva La Verve Challenges for some time now, so whenever I can, I'm trying to fit one in. Sometimes they sit unfinished until I get the idea, but this one came together quickly after it sat for a week. Amber has the neatest photos for inspiration and week 1 had a red living room that was calling me. I've seen a lot of bright flowers using the newest flowers from Verve and there have been a lot of challenges the past few weeks to use chipboard, so those ideas came together for this card.

Okay so here is my card inspired by that red room.

I used a woodgrain background stamp borrowed from my mother-in-law by All Night Media brand, stamped in Chocolate Chip. I sponged some Ruby Red in spots to give it a varnished look. I had my sweet daughter help with this card, she painted Warm Red acrylic paint on two square chipboard pieces until the were shiny, then I showed her the dry brush technique with some Burnt Umber acrylic. Boy did her eye's light up at that technique. I finished those squares off with a little distressing around the edges with scissors. That was about all she wanted to do on mommy's project so later in the week I started with the bottom panel by using a really thin sheet of chipboard (think the back of a legal pad paper thickness) and cut into strips. I used the dry brush technique on them and then sponged Ruby Red onto the bare spots. My first attempt was rather silly because I thought I could use the aqua pen... which created a really muddy color. That's what creating is all about, isn't it. I used one strip for my spacer piece and glued down the vertical strips on a piece of Basic Black CS that I precut to fit the bottom panel. I trimmed off a little bit of the cardstock at the last vertical strip to make it nice and neat. I did the same thing for the horizontal strips, but I premeasured them before gluing. I used my Warm Black Prismacolor marker to color the ends where the bare chipboard was showing.

Out came my Coluzzle to make the oval frame from chipboard. I applied the same process for painting as the lattice panel. I stamped Psalm 84:11 with Jet Black Staz-On and then cut it out for the oval frame adhering it with Glossy Accents. I popped it up with dimensional foam dots and colored the edges of the foam so they wouldn't be too noticeable.

The flower is on kraft text weight paper and embossed with a mix of Black and Gold embossing powder that I mixed together. I had some leftover warm red paint on my palette so I thought I would use it on the flower. The first layer soaked in, but then I went back around the tips of the petals and got a real nice pop out of it. I used my markers to make the shadow parts at the base of the petals. The middle of the flower is Orange Yellow and Canary Yellow markers. The leaves are colored with Prismacolors in Green Tea and Light Olive Green.

That's it. This card is definitely something I've never done before. It was fun to try new things and I'm so glad I didn't repurpose or throw out this unfinished project.

Details:
Stamps: Verve Plain Jane Psalm 84:11, Verve Love's Flower, woodgrain bg stamp
Paper: WRF Kraft CS and text, chipboard, clear acetate
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Prismacolor Markers (color names are in post), Acrylics in warm red and burnt umber
Accessories: paintbrush, black/gold embossing powder, Coluzzle Oval template

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