PATWITS 3UP Challenge

Well here we are again…PaperArtsy 3UP challenge…Oooo exciting!

This one’s all about techniques, we were asked to be creative with our favourite technique. Now I love to try all sorts of techniques and can be a little fickle and just tag along with the current trend…but I do love to create backgrounds, to the point that I think it’s a shame to cover them with a focal point LOL.

I had planned to do something Christmassy with a mosaic theme and use colours that you wouldn’t normally associate with Christmas BUT then I saw this fat quart bundle which really caught my eye and it was half price to boot and everything was turned on its head!!

But what was I going to do with it, it took me a while and time was creeping ever closer to the deadline, so I just sat there for a while then thought…stencils.  A sort through of my PA stencils found PS001 PS002 & PS005, and then off to my stash of Fresco Finish paints, I wanted something that would complement the grey/blue of the fabric but also something that would jump out and shout too and used Marlin, Nougat and Blood Orange.

Firstly I created a shaded effect with the Marlin & Nougat using the leaf stencil from PS005; I was really pleased how this turned out as I wasn’t sure I would be able to create the shade on the fabric. Then came the Blood Orange with the wispy leaf from PS002, now I really liked this and as it’s transparent you could just see the fabric pattern. As it had already worked I created shading again using all 3 colours using the gorgeous flower head and just had a play, finally I filled the gaps with the PS001 and a honey combe stencil mixing Marlin & Nougat.

Now I know it’s not the British way…but I really like how this turned out and although it is simple I really didn’t want to cover it up and thought what to do next as a finished product, so I scanned it, as you do!

I scanned it producing a PDF and JPEG version and printed the PDF onto normal card but I wasn’t happy with the colours so tried the JPEG on matte photo paper and that was much better, I think it might be worth putting a piece of white paper on top before scanning to get a more ‘true’ colour but I’ll try that later.

Luckily it’s my brother and sister in-laws wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks so I thought I’d make a quick card. I used a section of the scanned fabric as the background (you can always add more stamping etc... here if you like it a bit busier!) and stamped the hearts from Darcy’s EDY01 with the Blood Orange onto an off-cut then mounted them on some rich velvet paper and adhered them to the card in a cluster hanging from some ribbon and sponged the edges with more Blood Orange.

So what to do with the fabric? I took some of the other fabric from the bundle and applied a thin layer of Satin Glaze to make it a little stiffer and easier to die cut, using a selection of PA Grunge Flowerdies #1, #2 & #3 I die cut various flowers and created a 3D flower to attach to the fabric which will be stitched onto a canvas bag. As you can see I haven't decided on the position of the flower yet!!

Anyway I’ve waffled on enough, hope you like the project and Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy Craftin

Rebecca