Heartwarming Encouragement

Hi there, I'm back with my week 2 piece for Frilly and Funkie.  This is for Rebecca's Warmth of Winter challenge where she asks us to she asks us to warm the winter chill by creating something that will bring warmth to the heart of a friend.  What is more heartwarming that the encouragement to have faith in oneself?  

I'm still wanting to play with Wendy Vecchi's new technique of creating a watercolor feel with archival in reinkers and rubbing alcohol.  I still wanted a little winter feel to the project so I went with icy blue for my main color.  I used Cornflower Blue with just a very little drop of Orange Blossom mixed in.  If you haven't seen Wendy's demo from CHA, you can view it here.  

Starting with half a sheet of Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper, I created the drippy background according to Wendy's demo and then stamped from a number of different stamp sets with Jet Black archival ink.  The stenciling is also done with the same ink. 

Two lessons learned:  1) dry your archival ink with a heat tool because it doesn't dry well on the specialty stamping paper which makes smearing likely as you continue to work on your project and 2) do not try to touch up your background after stamping with archival ink.  The alcohol makes the ink run (ask me how I know that - duh, I tried to intensify the blue a bit on my first version which dissolved and ran the black ink).

The leaves were cut from plain gray chipboard using the new Tim Holtz Alterations Garden Greens Bigz die (I still have a few in stock and have a few more on order but they are going fast!).   I painted the chipboard with Picket Fence Distress Paint and when dry, stamped it and then sponged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  

For the large handmade flower, the bottom two layers were cut with the new Jumbo Tattered Florals XL die and the rest of the flower was cut with the Tattered Florals die and also some of the very small flowers with the Tattered Flowers Decorative Strip dies.  They are white CS colored with Scattered Straw Distress Stain and edged with Vintage Photo DI.  I did use a couple of TH rub-ons right under the distressed doily die cut.  

This was a fun make.  I really enjoyed playing with all my Wendy Vecchi stamps, stencils and ink!  I hope you will stop by Frilly and Funkie to see the rest of the amazing DT's projects!

These products used in making the project above are available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique where Ranger and most other name brand products are always 20% below MSRP.

Ranger Inkssentials Speciality Stamping Paper 8.5 X 11	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Reinker - Orange Blossom	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Reinker - Cornflower Blue	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Love to Make Art	Stampers Anonymous Rubber Stamps Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 A Form of Art	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Jumbo Tattered Florals Bigz XL	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die
Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz On the Edge Die Distressed Doily Die	*Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Garden Greens Bigz Die	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Scattered Straw	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Dots & Stripes Borders
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Classic Words	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs Words