Love - Hold On or Let Go

Valentine's Day has never been on my Top Ten Holiday list, although I love all the frills and romantic themes.  But wanting to continue exploring in this new paper world, and to have a goal to work toward, I decided to try something for The Vintage Journey's "Love is in the Air" challenge, set by the talented Astrid.  I had also just received my Mixed Media starter kit from DecoArt, and really wanted to play around with that crackle paste, as I have seen so many wonderful projects already using it.  And I wanted to play with some more of the Distress Stain sprays.

So no story in mind, I used a beautiful Michelle Ward stencil that had a heart reference, applied the crackle paste through, and once dry, spritzed away with Worn Lipstick and Tattered Rose sprays.

I liked the result.  I sprayed it all with some Smooch Spritz in gold for a bit of sparkle.



I was working on a separate piece of Bristol Vellum which I would then paste into my journal, so I needed a border.  I first tried an Andy Skinner technique of metallic paint, followed by stamping in archival ink (Rich Cocoa here), then topped with Americana Weathered Wood, and then a wash of Quinacridone Gold.  You can see his tutorial here which describes all sorts of ways to use this product.  Here is my result using a lace stamp... like it ok, but it wasn't a good frame for my piece.

So thinking of the frilly accoutrements of Valentine's Day, I decided to make a lace ruffle as a frame for the page, first painting the edges with Tattered Rose, and then toning down with Weathered Wood and Picket Fence.

The lace ruffle was then secured with hot glue...

and distressed with Victorian Velvet distress ink - worked well, even though this is synthetic polyester lace.

 The piece fit....

 But it needed some more definition, so added a smudgy border of aged silver embossing powder using Versmark ink and wiping away areas that were not random enough.  The piece was then adhered with a flattened toilet tissue tube underneath to keep it from sinking in the middle (the lace is pretty fluffy).

I was at a loss of how to continue, so I cut a bunch of Mover and Shaper flourishes and butterflies from single sided print card stock, and painted them with distress paints - first in Tarnished Brass, and then with Brushed Pewter.  I used the wrinkle free marbling technique for the butterflies, using the leftover paint from dabbing the flourishes with the pewter.

The whole thing still felt empty, so I made a little "manuscript" from a mulberry paper scrap, and tried to roll it like one sees in the movies or cartoons - the top end rolled to the back, and the bottom to the front.

I printed onto tissue paper a partial poem from Margaret Atwood using a wonderful font I just got from Old Fonts; this is Remson Script.  I distressed this with Vintage Photo distress ink on edges and also over the tissue overlay.

I wanted to put a title or something at the top....but inspiration had fled to greener pastures this evening.  So this is it.... perhaps to be continued at some point. I do like the crackle, colors, lace, and the little manuscript....just doesn't feel like it is complete yet.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please do leave a comment - I'd love to hear your thoughts whatever they are!  Including how to finish this piece :-)

I will be entering this into the Vintage Journey challenge Love is in the Air, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Think Pink and posting on Brenda's non-challenge Visual Journey.

xx Lynn