Shabby-style Birthday Easel

Hi!! :)

I’ve got a card to show you at last- despite the lack of blog posts, I actually had a pretty busy crafty week last week and made two cards that I’m feeling pretty pleased with :) Today’s is an easel card made for a good friend’s birthday, which I finished last Thursday, but didn’t want to post it on here until after she’d had a chance to open it- which was hopefully on Tuesday but I’ve been having a rough week again!! :S – in case she happened across my blog in the meantime!! :)

The armchair and knitting girl (my friend and I have both been trying our hand at knitting lately, though she’s been rather more adventurous than my simple scarves, I think!! ;) ) are both Friday Freebies from the fab SJ’s Little Musings, which I happened across early in my forays into blogland a few months ago :) The girl is called Rach and she’s from a little while ago- I liked the ‘Musings’ so much that I trawled back through some old posts to see what else I could find!!- but the armchair is only from a month or so ago and it was one of the DT cards from that week which gave me the idea for this card :)

I used pink Core’dinations Whitewash card for the main panel, embossed it with C’bug Floral Fantasy folder, sanded it, attacked the edges with my Tim Holtz Distressing Tool and then inked them lightly with Antique Linen Distress Ink :) Thus far, I was following the ‘sort of plan’ I’d had in my head... When I started crafting I’d always know exactly what I was going to do and use before I so much as thought about getting anything out and making a start but these days I often only have a sense of how I want the finished card to feel and the main image/product/technique I want to use before I start surrounding myself with cascading piles of papers, cardstock, inks, tools, etc- sometimes I think this is so much better a way to craft, other times I get so bogged down with all the options that I don’t have a clue what I’m trying to do!! How does the creative process work for you? Anyway, back to the point, I then realised I had no idea what papers I wanted to use and had to go on a search through several different piles to find the right patterns and colours- I don’t know how I ended up with the one I did- which is from a Kanban pad that came with some stamps form QVC- as usually I can’t stand to mix brown and purple, but I didn’t seem to have much that worked and the pattern on this one- which I love- very much went with the ‘feeling’ I wanted for the card...I was aiming for a sort of rich-toned shabby-chic-type look!! Plus, it tones in with the cat!! So, I distressed and inked that, too :)

The images are coloured with Promarkers- I think they came out okay in the end, though I did end up going back over the chair with another layer of the middle purple shade as the lightest one seemed to have turned the darkest one a funny yellowish tone again :S Apart from the purples- Lavender, Lilac and Amethyst again ;) – I’m afraid I really don’t know what colours I used as I did the colouring a week or more before the rest of the card and I can’t remember now!! My friend also has cats and I tried to colour this one like a pic of one of them- not sure if I quite got it, though!! I inked around the edges and, very lightly, over the entire images with the Antique Linen DI to tone down the brightness of the PM colours and bring it all together, too. I liked the idea of the chair sticking up from beyond the top of the card and thought the extra Nestie shape would add interest and balance the card a bit :)

I used Nestie circle and Blossom dies and a left-over bit of the embossed card with a corner punch to make the stopper- all edges distressed and inked again. The greeting is a white Peel-off coloured with Sandstone Promarker.

The swirl is actually a tree stamp from a Dawn Bibby set- I was looking through my stamps for a suitable swirl and, as usual, realised I wouldn’t be able to get anything to look symmetrical on both corners of the card...and then the tree caught my eye- think I’ll be using it as a swirly corner more often!! :) It’s stamped in Antique Linen and then more ink applied with Cut and Dry Foam to give the card some colour :)

I added some of my new tiny pearls, which I coloured with Sandstone PM again, at the end to finish it all off :)

And a full view of the inside :)

I’d like to enter this in The Stampman Challenge 3 – Easel Card :) and Lexi's Creations 21 - Emboss It! :) I’ve not been up to looking around at challenges much so no idea if it’ll fit any others but if I come across any later today I may add them in :)

I have another card from the weekend to show you so will hopefully be back before too long :) I also had a bit of a crafty splurge last week and treated myself to some of the absolutely gorgeous new Lili of the Valley Christmas Stamps and some more Promarkers- from a place that has good prices, but usually extortionate P&P, who had a P&P offer and at £1 a pen I couldn’t resist getting the ones that were next on my wish list :) – so I’m looking forward to hopefully having the energy to have a proper play with them soon!! :) Hope you’re all okay and having a good week :)

hugs,