January Viva La Verve's

---

(unframed art...easier to photo)

I know it's February but I have a project to show that I completed well into the middle of January using the first week sketch from Viva La Verve this year.

The quick story is the following. I overloaded myself with paper flower tutorials and either combined two together or came across a brown sack lunch rolled flower tutorial. In any case, I made a few and wanted to put them on a project. I picked the first Viva La Verve sketch of the year to make a card, but I couldn't possibly put the flowers on a card to mail or even shove into an envelope when the largest one was over 1-inch thick, so I decided I'll frame it in a shadow box. The dry embossed panels were already finished when I decided to frame it so I debated on tossing them and making new ones or to try and position them for a standard 8 x 10 frame. I kept them and found a shadow box frame at Joann's for 10 bucks. yada, yada, yada. Two weeks later it's done. Two weeks further, it's blog posted. :)

Into the details...

I tried all sorts of embellishments for the trio element of the sketch, but nothing seemed to work... so I made some buttons. I used a Quickutz button die (thank you CJ!) on some thin chipboard paper and glued three dies together and sanded around the edges to hide the layers. Then I had just read about a new-to-try technique from the Paper Craft Connections blog (here), so I put it to use on these buttons. I  used some delicious stamp from Layers of Colors to press into the gold embossing powder that was first inked up with Brilliance Graphite Black. My daughter even helped out by stamping as soon as the third layer of embossing was heated.

Added 2/5/11: The instructions from Paper Craft Connections say that you can put some Versamark on your stamp before ink and that creates a release when pressed into the heated embossing powder. Thanks Linda for bringing this up in the comments!

The flowers a three different kinds of paper bag "paper". The medium size flower is from a lunch size paper bag which is thin and took distressing well. The large flower is from brown kraft shipping paper. This paper is thick and porous so when I colored with a misting spay bottle it was very bendable. The third and tiniest flower was made from a thinner kraft paper designated as dust cover paper (think about the paper that covers the back of a framed piece of art...yes this is a leftover from my picture framing business.) It was a happy medium paper that took well to distressing but stayed firm when spritzed with colored water and shimmer mist. Each of the flowers were glittered after they were rolled up by rubbing some clear gel glue with a cotton swab across the distressed edges. The centers are filled with some Quick dry Tacky glue and then sprinkled with Martha Stewart gold and brass microbeads.

Embellishments were added on top of embellishments in stages (because it just didn't look finished). Hand-stitching added to the panels. Seam binding ribbon from Martha Stewart was added on top of brown satin ribbon, then red adhesive back pearls. The sentiment panel was edge distressed and sponged with Ranger vintage photo and Walnut Distress inks. Back to more embellishment with gold cording and a rosette made out of metallic espresso paper. When it was finally framed I could breathe. LOL

Now that it's finished it will be making a home on the wall of our guest bedroom. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Have a great weekend!

Details:
Stamps: Verve Plain Jane Ecc 3:11 and Framed Wishes, Layers of Color Acanthus Leaves (for buttons)
Paper: Kraft cardstock, various kraft paper for flowers including brown sack lunch bag, Espresso metallic cardstock, thin chipboard (for buttons)
Ink: Versa Magic Magic Red, Ranger Distress Denim, Graphite Black, Spica Gold pen
Accessories: Fiskar decorative scissors (rolled flowers), embossing folders, paper piercer and SU! mat kit, Kaisercrafts red pearls, SU gold cording, Martha Stewart glitter, microbeads and brown seam binding ribbon, Ranger Queen's gold embossing powder

---