Uniko Studio challenge 19, CASology 140 & Time Out Challenge 28

Uniko Studio Challenge 19 - Above sketch (optional) and Anything Goes

Time Out Challenge - To CASE the above sketch with a twist

Hello all,

Is has been FAR too long since I last did a blog post, let alone enter a card challenge. Life has been absolutely hectic over the past few months (in a good way) but that is for another time. I am short on blogging time as the boys are now on holiday for Easter.

Straight on to my card then….It's happened again, I've become hooked on a technique and I'm going to use it to death in various combinations. I first tried this technique just the other night and it just worked amazingly and so I couldn't help but make a different card, in keeping with this challenge.

The technique is the chalkboard effect! It is SO amazingly simple to achieve, but yet the results (in my opinion) are just immense!

So, I began with a folded to A6 piece of white card stock as my base card. I then cut a piece of black card stock to 13.85 x 9.5cm. I used my Crop-a-dile to chomp the corners - this makes the base card look like it is a frame.

I embossed in white two flowers from Uniko Studio's Flower Power 2 set twice on the black card and once on a separate piece of black card - I wanted one I could cut out and raise up on foam pads. I also used leaves from the Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum set too, again embossing them in white.

Next I mixed some white water-colour paint with a small drop of water (you need to keep the paint fairly thick). I painted inside the flowers and leaves with the paint, dried with my heat tool and then gave a second coat. I find that this gives a much better base if done twice.

Once dried, I then coloured the flowers and leaves using Spectrum Noir pens. You will find that you have to use darker colours than you think in order for them to actually show up. I coloured two of the flowers pink and the third in purple shades. I used two colours of pens in order to give a bit of shading. I cut out the third flower and added it raised up on pads between the other two flowers.

Originally I was thinking of laying my sentiment over the top of the flowers, but it masked them too much. I decided therefore to heat emboss in white a couple of sentiments from Clearly Besotted. I feel these work really well with the overall style of the card.

Prior to doing any embossing, I used an embossing pad by Woodware to avoid any stray pieces of embossing powder. The downside of this normally is that on dark card, it can leave a bit of remaining powder - this was not a problem in the case of this card, because I was going to be wanting it like that anyway! Once everything was added to the card, I then took a piece of white chalk and rubbed it on its side over the surface of the card and rubbed it in to the card. This leaves behind a kind of 'wiped chalk board' look. The way the flowers have been painted then coloured on to the black card, leaves a kind of chalky look too which is perfect for this card.

The card was finished off with a few sequins in the centre of the flowers and also on the main card just to add a bit of interest.

I am SO pleased with this card and it is definitely going to be added to my new card collection for selling in my Etsy shop :-)

Best of all, it fits in to three different challenges this week! I used the sketch from Uniko Studio, used black and flowers as per the lovely inspiration card given at Time Out and finally, these are beautiful spring flowers as per the 'spring' theme at CASology.

I hope you like it and please do say hello in the comments. Any feedback so very much appreciated.

Thank you for looking,

Laura - LE Designs