Let's Dance by Buttons

Hi everyone! Jenny Marples (still known as 'Buttons' by many of you) reporting for duty - and you have no idea how thrilled I am to be here! Much like Alison it didn't take any thinking about when I was asked to be Guest Designer for The Artistic Stamper during March. Enough of the introductions, I can here you thinking "cut to the chase and show us what you've done!"

Thought I'd start my month with one of my trademark cards. There are a lot of photos coming up to show you the details as a lot of processes have gone into creating this.

First the music background - some of you who follow my blog will know I did a lot of experimenting with texture paste and embossing folders.

In this case I used white paste which reacted with the water and became beautifully distressed at the edges. Swipes of Archival and Distress inks helped to highlight the score even further.

The next layer made use of the background stamp which the talented Sioux Jenneys created for her dance stamps set. Love this SO much as it is based on a dictionary entry and stamps really clearly.

I started by swilling my cardstock around in various shades of blue and brown Distress Paint - the colours were chosen to emulate those used by Edgar Degas who painted the most amazing works depicting ballerinas in rehearsal. The text was stamped on top using Archival Ink to keep it crisp.

Distressing the edges complimented the music score panel and provided a contrast with the clean edges of the vellum and antique gold cardstock.

I love adding faux pearls as an accent (made from drops of PVA glimmer glue.)

This delicate lace had Distress Ink blended onto the top and ribbon layered over it.

And now for the dancer herself. Or is she? The brilliant Sioux had the ingenious idea of including wings in her set of dancer stamps, so for those who don't have ballerinas in the family you can create fairies instead!

Having stamped her onto card it was time to layer Ferro metallic texture paste on top to give her some depth. . Some heating and moulding, and a layer of Ranger Snowflake embossing powder (to add twinkle/more texture) and she was ready for painting. I created a mask so that the head, arms and legs could be covered in Antique Linen Distress Paint and the dress in Picket Fence Distress Paint.

Her wings were made by using white/blue pearl embossing powder on vellum so they would be delicate and would catch the light in the sun. And finally another genius move by Sioux - there is an outline version of the dancer included in the set so I could use that to create the beginnings of the faux shadow. By stamping this outline with Walnut Stain Distress Paint over all the layers on the card I was able to fill it in accurately regardless of the difficult textures that could have been a problem.

So there you have it. Hope you've enjoyed my first (lengthy) project. There's more from me to share this month so I hope you'll be back to take a look. For now take care and enjoy crafting.

Jenny Marples

Pushing The Right Buttons

Stamps used - Dance Stamps