Bits & Bobs for Crafty Individuals!

Well, I went all over the place with this one!  After looking through my collection of Crafty Individuals stamps, each of which is lovely, I finally settled on the Dragonfly Collage, the French Script, and the Butterfly Trio.

Here you can see the gorgeous Dragonfly Collage, and the French Script.....and just a hint of the Butterfly Trio, but more of that to come!





I aged some paper with various Distress paints (Aged Linen, a touch of Milled Lavender, and a few touches of Gathered Twigs), and once to my liking, I stamped the Dragonfly Collage in Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil Archival Ink.  After distressing the edges physically and with some Distress Ink, it looks like this:

Next, I aged some paper using Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs, and splotching it with water spots.   Then I stamped with Ranger Archival Ink in Cobalt using the French Script stamp.   I also physically distressed the edges using my scissors, and then with some more Distress Ink in Ground Expresso.
And now it looks like this:

I think my craft sheet wasn't too clean, given the green and what looks like red but is actually residue from a copper Lindy's Stamp Gang spray!  That's because I thought my substrate would look like this:

But this turned out to be too glitzy for my ephemera, which include an old portrait I got on e-Bay some time past, and lots of die-cut doilies and lacy things, for which I used the Tim Holtz Wallflower paper.  It has a wonderful vintage look, which I wanted....but it sure is hard to get that bling in with those vintage colors!

Last, but not least, I turned to the Butterfly Trio.... with the idea of "ghosting" it on some acetate stamped with alcohol inks, per these instructions.  So I applied some Pesto and Mushroom alcohol inks to a small piece of thin acetate, along with a tiny bit of gold mixative -  I can't get away from the shiny! I cut it with the Scroll On-the-Edge die, and it looked like this, kind of like a pretty piece of stone:

Following the technique, I then stamped with archival ink in Black Jet.... and immediately began to remove it.  As I feared, the stamp's image is quite delicate, and gets rather lost in the maze of depth and color on the acetate, but you still can just make it out...if you look REALLY hard, lol!

And as I rather liked the scrolling and the green, I left it in the piece.... but here is what the stamp itself looks like - it is one of my favorites.

After adding a few bits and bobs from Graphic 45, which were grunged up with Ground Expresso and Vintage Photo, I stained a Kraft Resist 12 x 12 panel with Picket Fence Distress Stain, and assembled my pieces.  The final make looks like this:

I can think of several story lines for this.....but my favorite is that she lives in the countryside perhaps a widow, a governess, or unmarried but ensconced in the family digs....and collects things she likes to paint.  Or maybe she is one of the first but unknown female botanists.... or maybe this is all a flea market find!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you've time, please do comment - I appreciate every one, and each of you!

xxx Lynn

I am entering this into the Crafty Individuals January Challenge .