Crafty Cardmakers challenge #167 Shabby Chic/Distressed

Ina is hosting our challenge this time. We would like to see your shabby chic/distressed creations. 

As usual you can enter anything you fancy, it doesn't have to just be cards, as long as it meets the challenge, and doesn't exceed the 15 total challenges entered rule!

We are sponsored for this challenge by 

WOODWARE CRAFT COLLECTION

With a prize of £12.00 to spend at your favourite Woodware Stockist, either in store or on line.

Woodware are a Yorkshire based family owned business, as well as distributing Dreamweaver Stencils and Stampendous Stamps we have a wonderful range of stamps designed for us by Francoise Read and Jane Gill. We also scour the world for new and innovative products for the crafty card maker, and have a great range of punches and tools of the trade, to find stockists in your area or to see the range visit the website www.woodware.co.uk.

 
The Woodware design team are playing along with the challenge so check out their blog, which is there for inspiration at www.woodware.co.uk/blog.

My craft room has been partly packed up recently, as I have had some windows replaced and as a result nothing is where I need it to be and all my stamps are in a nice box underneath other boxes.  So where I normally use stamps to create a shabby chic background, I have had to resort to other methods this time!

I decided to create my topper sheet using my Serif Craft Artist 2 software (which to be fair, I use a LOT for backing papers anyway) and this was my first effort at creating something like this.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out, but of course, added extras to it!

My card base is a new favourite - A5 landscape - for which I totally blame Anna Marie, of Anna Marie Designs...

I used some backing paper already in my stash for the main background layer, and onto this I applied my "topper sheet".  Before I stuck the sheet on though, I first tore all the edges and distressed them with aged mahogany distress ink.  I rolled one of the corners up, and in the gap created I attached a bookprint flower, also coloured with the same distress ink.  (I got the bookprint from an aperture I cut out from another project - the trauma!!  I hate damaging books, even when they look lovely afterwards).

I randomly stamped some butterflies using the mahogany ink and stamped the sentiment in the top corner.  Finally, I attached some faux pearls to the flower centres and the top of the butterfly feelers.