In Stitches!

Coby van Willigenburg is our hostess this week at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. Her challenge is "Stitches". This is what she had to say about her challenge.

"I love stitches in my creations, sometimes stamped, sometimes made with the hand, and sometimes with the sewing machine. I challenge you to use stitches in your creations...."

If you'd like the chance to win your choice of $30 worth of Stampotique stamps, you should play along with this challenge. Visit Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and be sure to read the rules so that you'll have the chance to win that great prize!!

Here's my card with Stampotique's Penelope (Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney), Bark Cube (Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney), Skully (Arwen McCullen), Folded Tags (Josie Cirincione) , and Barcode Text #2 (France Papillon).

I will preface this dissertation with the bold statement, "I do not sew!" Having said that, I did, in fact, hand sew on this project and only drew blood once! Best of all, I did NOT bleed on my project.

Since my whole idea for this card hinged upon the premise that I'd be able to turn Arwen's Skully into a canvas garland. I was delighted to discover that I was mostly able to stamp a joined row of
Skullies onto canvas with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig stamp positioner. The Skully garland was then painted with Translucent White Media Fluid Acrylic paint (DecoArt), which gave the skulls n' bones an aged look. A Pitt pen was used to go over the lines that had been touched with the paint and to darken the black here and there. A Copic marker was used to add grey to the eyeholes.  When done, the Skully garland was fussy-cut using scissors and an exacto knife. 

I have a motherlode of patterned paper scraps and like to use them.  Folded Tags was stamped onto three green matching-ish patterned paper scraps with Leaf Green Archival ink (Ranger). All three were fussy-cut, edged with Leaf Green Archival ink, positioned slightly offset, and adhered to one another. This border was then adhered to a large scrap of blue patterned paper. Using Tim's ruler, I poked holes along the bottom and sides of the Folded Tags, then sewed xxxxx along the bottom and ran a straightish stitch up either side. The hole-poking, needle-threading, stitching, bandaiding, and such took an inordinate amount of time, probably more than the rest of the project combined. I am not a seamstress. Sad, but true.

But I digressed, which is shocking. Or not.

Penelope and one of the dogs from Bark Cube were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts), colored with Copic markers, edged with a Pitt pen, and fussy-cut. Clear Gelly Glaze pen was used to add dimension to the scissors and to the dog's nose. White Gelly Glaze pen was used to add white shiny dimension to his teeth. My Exacto blade was used to cut a slit in the corner of the dog's mouth. Green thread was tied around Penelope pigtails and some pink chalk was added to her cheeks for that healthy glow. Penelope and the dog from the  Bark Cube were adhered to the background. The Skully garland was added with the garland being positioned to look as though it had been cut by Penelope's scissors. A bone from a slightly tattered canvas Skully was inserted into the slit in the dog's mouth.

"Shenanigans" from Barcode Text #2 was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto blue patterned paper, then die-cut with one of the dies from the Stitched Speech Bubble die set(Spellbinders), which was then dutifully stitched with blue thread to be all matchy-matchy. I'm cool like that. It was added to the card front and I called the card done.

Thanks for visiting today.

I shall enter this card into the following challenges:
• Fashionable Stamping Challenges: Sew What
• Through The Purple Haze Challenges: Anything Goes
• Inky Chicks Challenges: Stitching