Feeling Fit to Burst!

Hi everyone. Wondering why I'm feeling fit to burst?

Well a huge chunk of that has to do with the fact it's time to let the genie out of the bottle, ping, and announce that I am beyond honoured/thrilled/excited to have been asked to join the new line up at Our Creative Corner. You'll see the reason for my excitement when you take a look at the team (on the sidebar) HERE. There are new challenges in store and you may just notice a change in the decor and format when it goes live. We are all ready at the starting gate for the first challenge and look forward to seeing you there.

And now for photos of a new card which prove that the sun sometimes shines on Staffordshire (although you had to be up at 6am to see it!)

I recently got to see some of the fantastic new releases over at Nicecrane Designs and got rather excited when I saw the new Victorian Art collections. The image in this card evoked memories of a fantastic historical TV series in the UK last year called 'The Paradise'. It also transported me to many a happy lunchtime spent browsing around a haberdashery shop in Irongate, Derby.


















I wanted to use the main image as a backdrop and created a frame to add some depth and draw the eye 'inside' the shop.

The paper used for the frame was originally b&w so DS Antique Linen (how appropriate!) edged with DI Victorian Velvet/Vintage Photo toned it to match.

I felt the frame needed embellishing in a way that didn't detract from the image, so I chose to stamp/colour/emboss/fussy cut lots of elements in colours which would blend with the frame and pick out a couple of colours within the image. I love to use the Walnut Stain Embossing Powder to add texture to images and in this case used it on the ball of twine and buttons. The scissors and thimbles were clear embossed to add a shiny 'metallic' feel, and the sewing machine just had to be black embossed. Vellum tape measures stamped in DI Pumice Stone also added some subtle detailing.

Many of the images and the sentiment were stamped onto antique gold cardstock which has a beautiful sheen to it without being too 'bling'. All the stamped images came from two sets;
Indigo Blu - Sewing Mends the Soul
Sam Poole - Vintage Sewing

Bless her, Hels Sheridan picked a time-saver of a theme for this week's
Sunday Stamper challenge - paper
As that is pretty much all I've used on this card I think it qualifies!

OK, time to sign off and get the weekend's domestic duties attended to. Whatever you are up to this weekend I hope you get to squeeze in some time to indulge yourselves.
Don't forget to hop over to Our Creative Corner for a sneaky peek of what is coming up.
Take care of yourselves, hugs, Jenny x