Wonderful Wednesday - Pretty Romantic

Hello again and welcome to my first Wednesday post!

As you may have begun to tell I do like a bit of alliteration (comes from previously being a primary school teacher) and hopefully you are all having a lovely mid week.

Following on from my steampunk themed bottle on Monday, I am going for a different feel today, I am going for pretty and romantic. 
As it will soon be February I thought it would be good to start getting ready for the 'special' day.  Also over on Hels Sheridan's blog 'Ink on My Fingers' she runs a challenge, and at the moment the theme is 'Oh you pretty thing'.  So what better excuse do I need?
If you haven't seen Hels blog before do go over for a look as she makes beautiful items and also has some fab tutorials.

Anyway here is what I decided to use for my project (this was not the first photo I took as I did change my mind a couple of times)...

 

I decided to use an MDF tag rather than make a card as I like being able to add textures and mediums, and the MDF gives me a much more sturdy surface to work on.  The papers, stamps and dies are all by Heartfelt Creations (the Romantique collection) as they just seemed perfect for the colour scheme that I wanted for this project.

 

First I painted the tag with gesso and applied the paper using gel medium.  After sanding off the edges with an emery board I painted on watered down distress paint (tattered rose and worn lipstick).  Once this had dried I used a gold gilding pen around the edges  and then used the same colours of distress ink to blend around the paper...

I wanted some extra interest in the background so used one of the stamps that matched the paper and embossed the images using shabby pink embossing enamel from Stampendous.  I then used the script part of a stencil with champagne sparkle medium (the stencil is from TCW, Mini Grow Page) to add even more texture but still fit with the look of the paper...





The pink embossing is quite subtle but shows up better in the final photos. 
Now I was ready to die cut!  I used the Romantique dies to cut the main floral focal point then stamped and die cut the pieces to build up the flowers.  I also wanted even more texture so used a Tim Holtz die  (I recently discovered these and had to purchase them) called Mixed Media...

When these had been cut I coloured the floral elements using distress inks (picked raspberry and seedless preserves) and coloured the mixed media die cut using distress paints before adding some of the same shabby pink embossing powder.  I also stamped an appropriate sentiment (one from a retired Stampin'Up! set) which was die cut using Sue Wilson's Italian Circles die.  Finally they were all sprayed with some iridescent glitter varnish to give them a finishing touch...

It was then a case of putting all the elements together.  I used Pinflair glue gel to add extra dimension and make sure that it was stuck thoroughly.  I prefer to use this rather than silicon glue as I can not stand the smell that has!!  For hanging purposes I attached a piece of organza ribbon, and chose a darker colour as felt it looked better than a pink piece...

So there it is, my pretty romantic creation!

 

I hope you like it and thank you for looking.  I will be back on Friday and as it is a Funtastic Friday I will see what long lost goodies I have in my cupboard...friendly plastic? melt pot? paper clay? hmmm will have to have a good look and a play!

 

Enjoy the final part of your week,

 

Jane x