Sweet Friendship

As the wind might take a leaf so does my crafting inspiration. My card today ended up quite differently than I first started out to create. It turned out more than I had anticipated with vibrant color, but I really love how it turned out in the end.

I had a piece of pattern paper that was an old catalog print (speaking of catalog - stay with me to the end of the post), really bothering me that I hadn't finished using it up. So I started with the paper as my inspiration. I envisioned the Stampendous Deco Lady on the card and grabbed it after adding a thin layer of white gesso with a brush.

Gesso will warp the paper as it dries so here are some tips if you decide to try this out. Tape around the edges of your paper with painter's tape. No blue tape? Use masking tape, but lightly press it onto some natural fiber so that it won't be too sticky and tear your paper. Once the paper has dried from the layer of gesso, it might lay flat with a few wobbles here and there. If it has too much wobble for your taste get out some tack liquid glue and prepare to get messy. Spread a thin and even layer of glue across the back and then lay it down on your mat layer before you cut it out then trim it down to the right size for your card. 

I started coloring with my watercolor pencils and aqua pen in very light (watered down) hues, but then orange highlights for hair turned into a full on head of oranges and reds.

The creative process is a great way to slowly get out of our comfort zones... as long as we keep saying, "It's only a piece of paper."

This Deco Lady received many different vibrant hues and a few other beautiful surroundings, like a butterfly from the Charm Collection and a whimsy sentiment from Friendship Assortment. For some layout balance I added the swirl from the Charm Collection to the opposite corner of the Deco Lady and framed the whole of it with my trusty Omnigrip 6-inch ruler and PITT artist black ink pen.

Did I mention that Stampendous has a booth for the 2012 winter CHA? They have been posting sneak peeks from new catalog items this week. My card today uses stamps that are also in the new Catalog. Go check out the sneak peeks so far and then check out the catalog that will go live at Stampendous website as soon as CHA has started (You can look at the bottom of the main web page to see the current catalogs for now ~ wink).

Details:
Stamps: Deco Lady, Charm Collection, Friendship Assortment
Paper: Crumb Cake (SU!), kraft (Wausau), Old Catalog pattern paper (unknown)
Ink:  Versafine™ Onyx Black Ink Pad,  watercolor pencils, PITT artist black pen
Accessories: gesso paint (Rowney and Dawler), aqua pen, omnigrip ruler