Floral Window

The new monthly challenge starts today at Stamps and Stencils and this time our hostess is Ruth who is calling this one "Floral Frenzy".  She describes it this way:

"Hopefully it's sizzling June....when beautiful blooms burst into life. Whether they're stamped, stencilled or handmade we want to see flowers as the main focus of your mixed media project."

I decided to make a floral card for this challenge but in a larger format than I usually do - this is 8" x 8". I started with some white card stock for the blank. Then I layered two background panels of paper from the Maja Designs collection called Nyhavn and to that I added a number of strips of torn paper from the same paper collection along with some from Bo Bunny placing the strips both vertically and horizontally. Once all the paper was adhered I covered everything with a slightly watered down coat of Liquitex Gesso. Then I added some lace from my stash.

I took a TCW stencil called Mini Harlequin and added some Wendy Vecchi Crackled Texture Paste through it.  Once it was dry I used some Wendy Vecchi Watering Can Archival Ink and stamped some dots from the Tim Holtz Utimate Grunge set and some script from a Recollections set called Haunted.

My husband cut the wooden window for me and I coated it with Gesso first and then covered it with the Crackled Texture Paste and inked it with some Hickory Smoke Distress Ink.  I used my fingers to smear it on so there are some gaps but I love it because it reminds me of the wooden storm windows that we had when I was a kid.  The paint kept flaking off and it was such a big job to repaint them that my Mother let them go as long as possible before they were repainted.  The house was huge and had a lot of windows so I can't say that I blame her.

Next I made some flowers out of card stock that I cut on my Cameo and then dyed with Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw and Tattered Rose Distress Ink adding pearls for centres.  The leaves were cut from the Tim Holtz Garden Greens and inked with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink.

I added a little bit of cheesecloth under the flowers and tucked a few roses from Wild Orchid Crafts and some pearl strand in with the flowers.

The butterflies were cut by my husband, inked with Dried Marigold DI and then I added some pearls for the bodies.  The sentiment was made on the computer and the edges were distressed and then inked with Dried Marigold DI.

Finally I added a filigree corner that was recycled from an old card and truthfully I can't remember how I altered it.

I hope you will think flowers and join us for this challenge - we love to see your creations.