The Lady of Shalott

Good Morning to all you crafty Peeps, it's the first Sunday of June so time to tell you about our new challenges and at Stamping Sensations it's my turn to choose the theme which is Summer Blooms..........I know I am so transparent and most of you could have predicted that one.........and at Penny Black and More we would like to see CAS creations.

Warning in advance this is a picture heavy post but the top creation was a difficult shape to get a decent photo so I have also done one of each section. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to create for Stamping Sensations which was to use Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott is some way........I absolutely adore the poem, but with nineteen long verses there was no way I could use it all so I picked out four which I felt matched the photos I had. I also wanted to use my Heartfelt Creations window die as they are our sponsors this month.

Now I know you are probably thinking what on earth does this have to do with Summer Blossoms, well quite a lot actually as there are references to flowers, barley, leaves and so on throughout the poem. For  instance in the first verse which is on the first panel of my card refers to lilies and verse eight in my second panel makes reference to water lilies. 

So I copied and printed out each photo, they are not brilliant copies but I think the slightly hazy finish blends with the tones I have used and placed each behind one of the Heartfelt windows and inked the edges with distress ink Rusty Hinge. Next I printed off the verses onto cream card stock and threw some gold embossing powder on before the ink dried and heated, the gold onto the black ink gave a nice deep gold colour. I cut an arch shape for each section and then randomly stamped with Inkylicious paint background with the same distress ink. Finally I joined the panels with lace, mounted the window panels and decorated with some Spellbinder leaves and lilies made from Ruth's punch and stamp peruvian lily set (links for products in the thumbnails at the bottom on post).

Phew..........it was a labour of love but I really enjoyed making it and I intend keeping it until July for history teacher daughters birthday, so apt as like she she is a lover of poetry.

I would like to enter this card into:

The Hobby House - Anything goes
Bloggers - To die for
Hels challenge - I dreamed a dream

Now for my Penny Black and More DT piece which takes far less explanation. It is one of the samples I made last year for Stampington magazine and have never blogged any of them until now because of exclusivity and so on.

I masked the top and bottom of the reverse side (matt side) of a piece of centura pearl and inked the background with distress inks mowed grass and salty ocean, then stamped with the Penny Black grasses using the same inks, which I also used for the butterflies. 

Here is another one from the same set of four cards using the same ink pads and masking, but this time I stamped and embossed the butterflies with clear powder to give a resist finish before adding the inks.

I would like to enter this card into:

Crafty Calendar - Things with wings

Have a lovely Sunday and I do hope you will join in our challenges this month.