Pastels - what a challenge!

Well this was a real challenge for me - over at As You See It challenge they had a mood board as below and you had to use all of the items. It was only as I sat down to join in I realise how much I don't use pastels! 

I grabbed an old SU Set Choose Happiness which I don't think I've ever used much.  I've been going through all my old sets and sorting them in to keep or let go.  I'm now looking at these sets with a different eye - and if I can use them on my art journals or mixed media then they stay.  This was one of the stay ones - anything with birds on has to stay too lol!

And so my challenge began to find some pastel inks.  I stamped the main images in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink which is my favourite black ink.  I then used some Distress Inks and a water brush for my flowers - Victorian Velvet and Milled Lavender.  The leaves were stamped in Versafine Clair Shady Lane and coloured in with Distress Ink Twisted Citron.

I then used my favourite SU embossing folder Painted Texture to emboss the stamped image.  i went over it in parts with some SU Soft Pastels.  I found them in a drawer and haven't used them in a while.  I cut out some butterflies with an SU butterfly punch in the same colours and added some pearls.

The ribbon is old SU Powder Pink shimmer and I added the bird in Archival Distress Picked Raspberry which had been stamped off to make it paler.  The sentiment comes from another old SU set that's a keeper Feather Together.

I didn't have any pastel cardstock to layer it onto but did find this very pale patterned cardstock someone had gifted me which fit perfectly.

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT 522

Anniversary

Our challenge this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday includes this great sketch with the added prompt of Anniversary.  It's my wedding anniversary next month - 36 years with my hubby.  Three days later our daughter gets married and then we move house - well actually move country - from England to Wales!  Lots going on in our household over the next month or so.

My card uses a Stampin Up Mask for the background with some Tim Holtz Speckled Egg.  I used some old SU cardtstock for the bands and ran them through the Painted Texture Embossing folder from SU.  The flowers is an old set by Clearly Besotted - I do like stamps with jars of flowers.  The sentiments are from my stash and I added a few little heart gems.

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - DOUBLE TROUBLE PARTNERSHIP #512

A full on challenge for you this week as we partner with Double Trouble again - here's our sketch for Try Stampin on Tuesday - if you want to be able to join in with Double Trouble also here are all their details.

Thing 1 Trouble Maker 

says, "Twisted Sister has often referred to me as being a square and out of touch with the current trends. She tells me it's better to be a circle because it's cool and groovy. Whenever this happens I sing 'It's Hip to be a Square' and, at least for a while, she stops calling me a square.

Talking about squares and circles, our partner for this challenge has a great sketch.  Following the sketch, include at least two squares or circles on your project using dies, frames, paper, embossing folders, stencils, etc., and show us whether you are square, groovy, or both.  

Note: Feel free to change the orientation of the sketch... rotate the sketch or use its mirror image. You may also modify by using a mix of squares and circles as long as the basic sketch is visible in your project.  

Thing 3 Twisted Sister will be embossing, dry or heat embossing. 

Optional Theme: Embossing

I started off by using an embossing folder from Stampin Up called Painted Texture for my background card stock.  I then rubbed a small Tim Holtz Distress ink pad over it in Pear Pizzazz to add the extra darker green.

The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque called Garden Wall and was coloured with Distress Inks and I added a cut out stitched framelit as the border.  The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set.