2021 Topic 4 Free to Fly Buzzing with ESN stamps {by Claire Snowdon}

  2021 Topic 4: Free to Fly

Taking such a humble product and lifting it to new heights is Claire tonight with her wonderfully textured card. With processes a-plenty and lots of vintage loveliness, there's much to love.
~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Claire Snowdon with you today, and I'd like to share with you a very textural card that I created.

It had been a while since I played with corrugated cardboard so I felt like it was about time to play with it again as I do love the sense of texture and the tactile quality it adds to a project!

I love stamping into Grunge Paste to create even more texture, this also creates lovely indentations for paint or Infusions to puddle into.

So the first stage was to peel back some pieces off the top layer on a piece of cardboard to reveal the internal texture.  I then added some Grunge Paste, smoothing it over with a damp finger before stamping into it using the large collage stamp from HP1501.

Once the Grunge Paste was mostly dry I started adding the painty layers - first of all some Sage and Peppermint Fresco Finish paints.  Then I sprinkled on some Infusions - Olive Tree and Rocky Road.  I love how the Rocky Road had some pink/purple tones within in as I feel like it adds even more interest to the background.

 

I carried on adding more infusions, intermittently drying so the cardboard didn't become too wet, until I was happy with the effect.  I didn't want the background to be too dark so I scraped on a little Fresco Finish paint in Chalk.  Then added some black splatter for contrast using Fresco Finish Little Black Dress.

Next for the focal image.

I stamped the bee image from ESN21, masking off the word 'bumblebee' before inking my stamp.  I coloured this with a little Fresco Finish in Tangerine Twist and then added a tiny drop of Glass Blue Fresco Finish into some of the Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze for the wings - so they do have a subtle twinkle in the light.

I tore around the bee image and vintage-d it up a little using Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.  Then I layered this on top of a piece of hessian, tea stained cotton, a piece of vintage lace and some pieces of black cotton threads - all secured together with a Tim Holtz tiny attacher. 

Once everything was dry I added the bee ensemble to the corrugated card piece.  I distressed the edges of the cardboard and added black archival ink around the edges and a tiny bit on the top in places.

 

I cut a piece of black cardstock and a piece of PaperArtsy Crunchy Wax Kraft Paper to the correct size for my card blank, then attached everything together using the tiny staples again.

Finally I added a Tim Holtz Quote Chip using Glossy Accents to ensure it adhered properly to the hessian underneath.

This is a great topic to get involved with as there are so many options - bees, birds, butterflies, dragonflies the list goes on and on.  I'm sure everyone has something in their stash that they could use to play along with!  I've made this card in a very vintage vibe however just by changing the colours up a bit and the materials layered underneath the focal image could turn it into a totally different project; bright and colourful, but still full of wonderful textures.

Thanks for joining me today on the blog,

Claire x

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