LOTV - Annabel's in Town!...

Happy Friday, everyone! Lili of the Valley is introducing seven adorable new stamps featuring little Annabel, a very active little girl whose pigtails are always flying. :) The stamps will be available for purchase from the website at midday on Monday, March 24th.

Annabel's being featured in today's blog hop, and as the LOTV hops often have, there are prizes hidden among our participating blogs for *two* lucky commenters, who will each win the complete set of the 7 new Annabel stamps by random drawing of all the comments. So be sure to leave a comment on each participating blog to increase your chances of winning one of the two prizes!

Here's the linked list of the blogs participating to make it easy for you to find them all...

Ideas to Inspire

Anne

Becky

Dawny

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy (you're here!)
Lou

Mary J

Mindy

As you may know by now, my focus on the team is use of the gorgeous LOTV papers, and the sentiment and background stamps. So how do I make a card incorporating the fun spirit of Annabel without using her image? I decided, since Annabel is such a busy girl, and apparently not partial to lacy and frilly things, I'd make up a card that was "busy" with techniques and minimize the "frilly" details that I'm so fond of.  :)

The background patterned paper is from LOTV's Pressed in Time paper pad...the large heart in the center is covered with paper from the Beach Bliss pad. Then I added several LOTV background stamp images to the piece. The clock in the lower left corner, and the postmark and text in the lower right corner, are from LOTV's Grunge Elements stamp set. The wonderful corner stamp in the upper right is from LOTV's Grunge Corners stamp set. The sentiment from the Handwritten Phrases set was stamped onto a tattered banner diecut.

After the stamping, I gesso'd the center of the piece, using the gesso itself to "glue" pieces of cheesecloth on both sides. The next step was to spritz some Broken China Distress Ink diluted with distilled water over the center of the gesso'd area, including the cheesecloth, and while it was still wet, I tilted the piece back and forth to make the ink run, and give a watercolor effect. I used a Tim Holtz Splatters stencil and some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to give the look of "cup" marks on the piece.

After some "messy" stenciling with dark gray modeling paste and a chickenwire template (to get the "messy" look, I didn't tape the stencil down, letting some of the paste seep under some of the edges...Annabel's not big into perfectly neat...heehee) I sprinkled some Shabby Blue Frantage embossing powder randomly around the card and heat embossed it.

A canvas flower with a button center, a seam binding bow, and a small stamen cluster, were added over the heart in the center of the card front...

Here's a closeup of the grunge corner stamp that shows most of the techniques all in one photo...the gesso, splatter stencil, modeling paste chickenwire stencil, Frantage embossing powder, distressed edges, and machine stitching...

The final handmade accent is a small air-dry clay corner element, painted with acrylic paints in coordinating colors...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   LOTV Pressed in Time and Beach Bliss paper pads

Stamps:   LOTV Set 66 Grunge Elements (clock, postmark, text);  Set 21 Grunge Corners; and Set 25 Handwritten Phrases

Dies:   Tim Holtz Tattered Banners;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves;   Xyron ShapeZ/Heart

Stencils:   Tim Holtz Splatters;   Crafters Workshop Chickenwire Reversed

Canvas flower:   Prima          Stamen cluster:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Clay corner:   Martha Stewart air dry clay and mold

Miscellaneous:   Hug Snug seam binding,  cheesecloth,  gesso,  Distress Inks,  Frantage embossing powder

Remember that we don't know who the "lucky blogs" belong to, so the more blogs you leave a comment on, the better your chances of winning a set of Annabel stamps in the random drawings. And don't forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog on Monday morning to see if you're one of the lucky winners!

Thanks for stopping in for a visit today. Enjoy the hop, and good luck to you!