Saturday Step X Step - My Travel Resolution

It's Cec here and it is my turn to present the Saturday Step X Step.  When I created my New Year's Resolution piece I promised the viewers of my blog that I would share how it was made over here today.

Once I decided that my New Year's resolution was to travel more in 2014 and to get to France, I went looking for vintage images that might suit the theme.  I found the postcard on The Graphics Fairy and the red stamp in the corner inspired me to make a black and white piece with little pops of red.

I started by cutting a piece of mat board 8" x 8".  I picked the mat board up for a song at a local picture framing store because it was an off cut - and because the owners have had my business for ages so I was able to be convincing.

Next I painted the mat board with Gesso.

Once the Gesso was dry, I sponged Black Soot Distress Ink all over the mat board and then sprayed water on it so the ink ran.  Next I sponged some Fired Brick Distress Ink on it randomly.  Then I used some city stamps from a Stampabilities stamp set and stamped them onto the mat board using black Archival ink.

Next I took a filigree corner and sponged Picket Fence Distress Stain all over it.

Once it was dry, I dabbed Embossing ink all over it, covered it with clear embossing powder and took my heat gun to it.

The next step was to emboss a piece of card stock with the Tim Holtz Eiffel Tower Texture Fade and then sponge Black Soot Distress Ink on the highlights and the edges.

I then made the flower using a couple of patterned papers and some black card stock from my scraps.  The layers were all die cut using the largest flower on the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.  Once I manipulated the petals so the flower had some shape, I added a lovely black and white flower button and a teeny red paper rose to the centre.

I stamped a piece of card stock with a vintage voyage stamp from Inkylicious using Black Archival ink, tore around it and then sponged Black Soot Distress Ink around the edge.

I found the Europe ad online and just printed it from my computer, cut it out and inked it with Black Soot.  Wouldn't it be nice if that was all it cost to see Europe?

The postcard took a bit more work because the background was yellow so I took it into Photoshop and got rid of the background before I printed it and inked it.

Finally I started to put the piece together adding some gorgeous lace, a strip of black crochet lace (actually half of a full piece), a pearl flourish and a sentiment from Tim Holtz Simple Sayings that I stamped and then cut apart before I added some red pearls and popped up the pieces up.

Now all I have to do is keep this in the face of my husband since he will be paying for this trip - if I can be persuasive :)

Here are the products from The Funkie Junkie Boutique that were used to create this project.