Saturday Showcase - Floral Frenzy

Hi!  Suzz here.  For my Saturday Showcase I was inspired by the current Layers of Lace Challenge.  I started with a bunch of leftovers from my design for the challenge and decided to showcase a floral frenzy of backgrounds from a variety of floral stencils and die cuts.

How does one get inspired to create so many different backgrounds?  When I start on a new challenge I usually will pull from my stash anything that I think works for the challenge.  I then will start playing with backgrounds or techniques.  This usually leaves me with a healthy stash of leftovers.

For the lace challenge I had pulled out doily inspired stencils and die cuts.  This left me with a pile of die cut images, stenciled backgrounds and inspiration waiting to happen!

I created a variety of tags and card bases that I can add embellishments and sentiments to finish them when needed.

The doily layering stencil was my first inspiration:

1. Lay the doily stencil  on cardstock and spray the pretty worn lipstick distress stain spray through the stencil onto the cardstock.
2. Lay white cardstock on top of the inky stencil. 
2. After the image dries, cut it up and turn into a tag. 

Next was a softer doily effect:

1. Lay the doily stencil on a 5" x 5" white cardstock.
2. Sponge the stencil with pink distress oxide ink.
3. Shift stencil and repeat.

After I used the pink spray I decided to try it in a tarnished brass: 

1. Lay the stencil down and spray the stencil with gold.
2. Lay cardstock onto inky stencil and pick up ink.
3. If the stencil is too dry you can spritz it with water to add a bit more moisture.

I loved how the gold looked and decided to take a different approach with my next card.

1. Lay the stencil onto white cardstock.
2. Using translucent embossing paste spread over stencil.
3. Let embossing paste dry.
4. Rub on metallique wax - vintage gold over the entire surface.
5. Repeat until you get the gold finish you desire.
6. Buff off any excessive gold on the embossed areas with a dry paper towel.

After I had fun playing with the doily stencil, I pulled out the blossom stencil and created a background. 

1. Lay the blossom stencil on the white cardstock. Apply white embossing paste over stencil.
2. Let dry.
3. Spray purple stain spray from left side of embossed area and pink spray from right.
4. While ink is wet spritz with water and tilt paper to blend colors.

After I finished with the stencils I had on my desk a piece of cardstock that I had die cut with the blossoms from the mixed media stencils. I decided to use this as a stencil.

First I wanted some background interest.

1. Stamp the background of the cardstock using an embossing ink.
2. Heat emboss with clear embossing powder.
3. (My stamp had some leftover black ink which caused a soft gray image. I liked the effect and left it instead of starting again)

1. Lay the die cut cardstock in the corner of the stamped background.
2. Sponge on antique linen distress ink or use embossing ink depending on the embossing powder you are going to use.

3. Sprinkle the sponged ink with vintage pearl embossing powder. Shake off excess.
4. Heat the embossing powder to melt.

I repeated the process multiple times to use the backgrounds in a variety of ways.

First I misted over the embossed images:

1. Spray from an angle brown ink and added a spritz of water to help it blend and spread.

That ended up looking like this:

On another background I left the background after embossing the flowers:

Finally I sprayed the background completely brown and sponged on more brown dye ink.  After that I decided to cut the image in half and create two small tags to put on gifts:

After I finished with the stenciled version of the cards, I used the masks to create two more card bases.

I sprinkled the mask with vintage pearl embossing powder and  heated up the die cut piece. I cut it down to fit on a mini card.

Finally I took the original mask with the sponged background and added a bit of text and mounted it on a card base.

After a little embellishing:

I hope you are inspired to play with your floral dies and stencils!

Don't forget that the current Layers of Lace Challenge is open until June 4th and to come back on the 5th for a brand new challenge!

Suzz

Products used:

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Blossom	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Doily	Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Mixed Media #2 by Tim Holtz	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Worn Lipstick	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Worn Lipstick
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Tarnished Brass	(February Pre-order) Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair -Metallique Wax-Vintage Gold	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain - Wilted Violet	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Picked Raspberry	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Translucent	Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Spray Stain	Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Ink Pad	Ranger Embossing Powder - Clear	Ranger Embossing Powder - Vintage Pearl
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Entomology	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Stuff to Say	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Antique Linen	Ranger Tim Holtz Mini Distress Ink Pad - Antique Linen	Miniature Ivory Sweetheart Blossom Flowers SAA-440
Deep Ivory Mulberry Paper Aster Daisy Stem Flowers SAA-378	Rayon Seam Binding	May Arts 1/2 inch Solid/Wrinkled Ribbon White	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Typed Tokens, Christmas	KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Snow