Thursday, April 1, 2010

Shabby Tea Room Week #3 - Get Scrappy!

 No new sheets of patterned paper were harmed in the making of this card.  Seriously.  This is a 100% pure scrap-made card!  The challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room this week is "Let's Get Scrappy."  Oh, how fun and liberating it is to make yourself work from your scrap box!!  C'mon, you know we all have them... hoards of little scraps of beautiful patterned papers that we just can't bear to part with.  I take that one step further... I have a box of stamped images and leftover bits of "techniqued" papers that I save.  Usually they are the result of my stamping too many images for a project, or I stamp on ivory and decide I really should have stamped on white, etc.  Sometimes I try out a technique and either don't use the entire piece or decide to go with different colors, for example.  I save all of these misfit scraps, and today, I finally actually used some of them!

I should also mention that the fabulous Melissa Phillips is the guest designer this week at The Shabby Tea Room.  She has her own little inspiration challenge, which currently centers around this gorgeous photo, which I took as a springboard for the colors in my card (didn't stick with the scheme exactly, but that's what an inspiration photo is for, right?  a starting point....my creation is decidedly using the shabby-vintage version of this color scheme...;)

So, working up from the bottom layer... the light blue patterned paper is an ancient Anna Griffin design.  Next up are two scraps from a "Couture Pack" of paper by Autumn Leaves.  The stripe is actually a little altered piece I made - I had stamped various Cornish Heritage Farms stamps on it and clear embossed them, then ran over the whole thing with a brayer and brown ink of some kind.  I was trying to come up with an idea for the CHF Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge using "resist" way back when, but decided to go in an entirely different direction.  I saved that little experiment, though, and here it is making it's debut, LOL!  The music is vintage, already torn and left over from THIS project.  Even my Tree Swallows image is a leftover..... it's an extra from THIS artist trading card project months ago.  I had made extras, just in case....  For the flower fringe around the image, I took some inspiration from the gorgeous Prima trim I used in THIS project, and made my own, coloring some Prima flowers with my Copics, folding them in half, and affixing them to the back of the image.  A scrap of twill tape, shabbied up, is the base for the sentiment (Hero Arts).  My tape was gleaming white, and I didn't have time to tea-dye some, so I cheated:  I just ran the pad of Antique Linen Distress ink over it, then ran the edges over the Tea Dye pad and presto!  This is a good technique to use in a pinch if you only need a little snippet of twill.  And that's it.  Everything old is new again.  So try it out.... it's fun... you know you've been meaning to use those scraps.... so go on now, do it! ;)

20 comments:

Jinny Newlin said...

I love how elegantly all your scraps come together into one cohesive look here, and your twill tape is perfect!

Debbie said...

I {heart} those sweet little NC Blue Birds!!! What a beautiful and shabby card ... perfect! Thanks for joining us, once again, the the Tea Room! I'm looking forward to seeing what you can come up with for us next week for the new challenge :)

Nicole said...

Great card. Love the color combo. Thanks for playing along with us at The Shabby Tea Room! :)

Suzanne C said...

Beautiful scrappy creation! I always have plenty of scraps. :)

Faye said...

Your scraps coordinated just perfectly. Beautiful card.

Melissa said...

Ohhhh...sigh...this card makes my heart sing...what a delightful little beauty you've created. I just adore it!
Melis

Lesley said...

Jean, I love your gorgeous card! Wow, they way you combined the scraps is amazing and those birdies are "tweet".

Smiles,
Lesley ;)

Lynn Stevens said...

Jean, Your too funny, no patterened paper harmed ! LOL. Shabby chic perfection it is! Oh yes I have a basket filled with scraps. I really need to play with them more offen.
Your tea room pieces have all been so lovely someday hope to join in.

Willy's creations said...

Looks lovely.

Hygs,Willy

Joan said...

I love your card, my scraps never come together like that ! also love how you linked to all your previous posts and that you gave me several ideas to use, thanks

Lynne Moncrieff said...

Your card epitomises Shabby Chic. All your artwork has such an air of old fashion elegance about it. Gorgeous. Lynne M (thank you so much for your comment on my Blog today)

Kris Dickinson said...

So elegant and beautiful!

Audrey Pettit said...

Oh, your card is absolutely gorgeous, Jean! SO glad you joined us for this week's challenge and used your scraps!!

Unknown said...

I love this and the DP payper with roses on is luch (why would you throw this away ?) exactly I have a huge draw full of scraps lol and I am happy to keep them I have used a few latley though and I did enjoy the process those birds are yummy too!

Love Dawn xx

Sharon McGarry Sams said...

Love the shabby look and the ribbon! It is a great challenge to use all those scraps you just can't part with! How fun!

Jacqueline said...

This card is so gorgeous! Lovely mix of pp!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful mix of image, color and papers!

Heather Rogers said...

Such a lovely card! The roses are so pretty. :)

Katy said...

Really beautiful card. Love the shabby chic style.

Maria Matter said...

WOW! this is beautiful!!!
Blessings, Maria