Melanthium vulgari

Posting for the challenge at Our Mixed Media Moods. They have a beautiful moodboard, from which I took the deep wine red colour, texture, fabric/threads and black and white florals. I'm also posting for the VivaLasVegaStamps challenge (used reds, oranges, pinks, purples, splatters, drips and drops, check their moodboard behind the link) and the Craft Stamper take-it-make-it challenge where anything with stamping goes.

I made the background by scraping heavy body acrylic paints on a card with black gesso. I used some texture paste and heat embossed it with sparkly pink embossing powder. I didn't like the effect (it turned somewhat silvery) and continued with the acrylic paint, making it thick layers and continuing with the palette knife.  I mostly let the paint airdry, even though the heat gun gave some lovely bubbles (when I tried the heat embossing). The embossing powder still shows, but just as a gritty texture, which I like. All the stamps I used are from VivaLasVegaStamps: the lovely detailed flower in the foreground , the ledger and some botanicals and a plate number (the plate with the melanthium vulgari) in the background. 

A wreath with hearts

The Paperartsy challenge is asking for hearts. I went through my stash, wondering what hearts I happen to have, and decided to use some small heart shaped beads. I am also posting for the Craft Stamper January challenge (Take a Stamp) and the Stamplorations CAS challenge (I'd call this clean, and weather fussy cutting is simple depends on who is cutting ;). I haven't yet tried to crunch this into an envelope...

When these stamps were launched, I loved an example card where this shrub had been fussy cut and built into a wreath. I've been burning to try it out, and now I at last have the stamps (ESN17)... as can be seen, the set doesn't limit itself to Christmas! I stamped the branch six times, coloured with Inktense pencils and water and spent a lovely time fussy cutting all of them. The mean part was trying to get them arranged in an even circle. It became a bit oval, but that's ok :) I twirled some thread in between the leaves and glued the pearls with Glossy Accents.

Transparency

The Paperartsy challenge is asking for transparent art. I have really enjoyed the posts, especially this one by Keren with stamping on acetate. I wanted to work on a card rather than a 3D object, but wanted to use a clear plastic to give more dimension. I made a similar card with a mason jar last autumn, and now I wanted to try out this bottle... and I'm also posting for the Country View challenge (Be Inspired by Bottles).

Below you can see the plain stamping (I worked straight on the DL card base for a CAS look). the image was coloured with colour pencils, mint green for the bottle (doesn't show here, but the plastic enhances it) and yellow for the flowers. I ended up using some shimmery yellow spray to add bling to the flower and ink sprays here and there. I cut slots along the straight edges of the bottle with a craft knife, taking care to stay inside the outlines.

I stamped the bottle on a plastic sheet (the kind that used to be used for overhead projectors, not very thick) andcut it out leaving flaps on both sides.

Here you can see how the flaps peek through to the inside of the card. I fastened them with double sided tape and covered with white washi tape.

And this is the buldge this gives to the bottle: The flaps limit to the outside of the bottle, the slots are on the inside of the bottle outline and these few millimetres on both sides add surprising dimension. And yet it isn't too thick to be put into an envelope.

I love the way this turned out and I'm so glad the bottle worked this well (I was a bit nervous about the neck...) If I should change something, I wouldn't use mint green with dark yellow... I have no idea what went into me when I chose those colours! But here it is, and the idea is worth revisiting :)