Welcome Back GD: Keren Baker Project #1 Tea Bag Lady

Hi there, It's Keren and I'm back for my final set of projects. Haven't the months whizzed past! I thought that separate projects seemed to go down better - so I'm back with a slightly different card.

The more observant amongst you might notice she has string appearing from her hat! When I saw this beautiful stamp in this Lynne Perrella set- I wanted to make a card with a 'tea gift' incorporated within.

LPOC14

I'd picked up a tip from Leandra a while back that if you wanted a great base for a face colour, to which you could stamp over and add colour to - Nougat was a great go-to colour.

Once I'd painted onto the ever-wonderful Smoothy cardstock, I stamped the woman image. You can see the lovely skin-tone effect it gives.

I wanted to create a layered effect - kinda a modern decoupage look- texture whilst still keeping a clean and pared back look. I simply stamped out 4 other colours from a bright palette of inks.

Now I wanted to add some colour to her face and so set about painting using different Fresco Finish Paints.

I started to cut out individual elements from the stamped images and began to layer them straight onto the black base image. I then cut a slit into the top of the cup- making sure I followed the line of the cup so it wasn't so obvious that I'd cut it.

I finished layering the different layers onto the cup and trimmed the blue cup out.

I added the cup onto the base using 3d foam pads to help give dimension. What was concerning me this point was the fact that this woman seemed perfectly at home wearing a tea cup and looked like she born to wear one!!

I trimmed the whole piece- taking care to leave a little line around- always good to give your eyes a little white to rest on!

To incorporate the 'gift' I chose a teabag and took it out of its packet (for ease of recognition you can add the teabag into the card so the recipient knows what type of tea they're getting).

Next, I slipped the string of the tea bag through the back of the woman.

The dress on the woman reminded me of the padded quilted types of period fashion, so I thought I'd have a go at replicating something similar (minus all the sewing for the stitch-o-phobes amongst you!) I got out my craft knife and cut out the little diamond sections from her dress.

Using a spare piece of voile I had, I started pushing the voile through the created holes with an embossing tool. Once pushed through (and yes, I did rip some of the diamond connecting points!!), I simply sealed the fabric in place with stickytape.

 I wanted to add the piece to the card base with some more 3D foam pads and thought the project was in need of a little 'more'. I'm a big fan of creating 'movement' on a project and the little dots of co-ordinating cardstock was the perfect solution to lead the eye through the piece.

I had wanted to give the illusion of the cup being shiny and 'ceramical' (yes, I did just make that up!) so enlisted the use of some Glossy Accents. DON'T. Had I remembered that often, this product causes certain dye inks to 'run' and lose their detail, I would have used the Fresco paints then I wouldn't have had any problems. You live and learn!

Finally I simply added a little heart to the bottom of the tea bag string and this kept the string anchored and I flipped the tea bag over the top of the card, it happily dangled down inside the card.


I just need one of them teacup hats and perhaps my life will be complete ;-) See you tomorrow for an altogether more tranquil affair!

~Keren~

Leandra Says: Colours such as Nougat and Blush are excellent for achieving softer skin tones as you have demonstrated. This is a fun quirky way to use this particular LP image.

Gillian Says:Super fun gift card Keren, I love all the little individual elements that give this card it's dimension.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Keren's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday August 10th 2014.