Paper and Lace

Hello out there! As Easter whizzes by the garden is starting to spring into life. This is one of my favourite times of the year. In a few weeks the wisteria will be in full bloom, the first of the summer clematis will be out and there will be baby ducks all over the canal by our house.

So for this post was I inspired by mother nature? No! In fact it was the 'Mistress of Inkiness' herself - Hels Sheridan. She had a Sunday Stampers challenge running called Paper Roses a couple of weeks ago but I could only enter by email as I hadn't dipped my toe into the world of blogging.

Well it is a piece I am particularly proud of it as it worked out just as I had planned (which is a novelty in itself!) and only took a good chunk of a weekend to complete. I hope Hels doesn't mind, but I figured it would be good to give it a public airing and whilst I was at it, enter it into this month's The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Challenge (entitled Ribbons and Lace).

So what took me all weekend? Well, the background was embossed with the Tim Holtz Alterations manuscript folder, inked up using a combination of different brown and copper tones and stamped with some Creative Expression swirls. On top of this went a piece of manuscript paper from 'the stash', followed by some cut out embroidered bits from net curtain remnants. This was all sprayed liberally with layers of Cosmic Shimmer pigments in pink and copper, and then topped with lace, ribbon and die cut embellishments. The small roses were sprayed with the same Cosmic Shimmer pigments and topped with mother of pearl buttons. The large rose was die cut from pink pearlescent card, stamped and aged with gold ink and topped with gold pva glue, glitter and a small mother of pearl shell that was innocently sitting there minding its own business. You can probably tell I'm proud of it by virtue of the fact there's a slice of it sitting under my blog heading!! Hope you like it too.

So, back here in reality I'm squeeling like a mouse as my OH has (get this) insisted that I go to Ally Pally on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!! To say I CAN'T WAIT is probably a large understatement! It's my first time and I can't believe the line-up of demonstrators! Meanwhile the OH will get some peace (?!) as he watches the Chinese GP and touring cars from Donnington, with only the dog and the kids for company. It's a hard life...

So, better get away as I have a mountain of work to prep for next week and it can't be left until the weekend (squeals again!) TTFN, hugs Buttons x