In My Little Korner: Cardabilities Sketch #104

TGIF! This week I had one of those "it's late at night, but the idea is hot and I'm going for it!" nights. While cruising some of the blogs in my feed yesterday afternoon, I came across the new Cardabilities sketch challenge, and I had a few ideas I jotted down. Last night, I changed my mind on a couple of those ideas, and decided to get to work on them before I lost momentum. Needless to say, it was late when I finished (drying time accounted for much of the time spent into the wee hours...that's my story and I'm sticking to it! heehee). Here's the finished card....

Here's the new sketch challenge that the design is based on...

For the background, I started with a piece of solid colored paper, and used matte medium to paste it to a base of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I knew I'd be using wet mediums on top of the paper, and wanted it to have a heavy base that could absorb the wet mediums without buckling. Then I gesso'd on several pieces of cheesecloth as the start of the textured base.

Once the gesso was dry, I used a combination of sprays and Distress Inks applied with foam applicators to add spots of color over some of the gesso'd areas, leaving the rest of the gesso spots white. The final step was to fingerpaint (yep...I fingerpainted it on...it was fun! LOL) Distress Stickles in Spun Sugar, Broken China, and Frayed Burlap over the front, to add more spots of color and texture, and just a subtle hint of sparkle.

Here's a closeup of a piece of the front that shows all the ingredients in one place...

There's a diecut doily under the sentiment block, and a twine wreath in addition that sits on top of the horizontal sentiment block. Each on their own didn't look substantial enough, but together, they counter the weight of the heavily textured background and the wider sentiment block...