One Sweet Challenge - Mid month reminder post

Hi everyone. Have you entered the March challenge at One Sweet Challenge yet? The theme is Pastels with Lace, Ribbons, and Pearls. There is a new inspiration and reminder post on the challenge blog to help jump start your creativity. This particular theme causes me to think throughout because I don't use just pastel colours all that often. Could you smell the wood burning as I was thinking? LOL

I chose to play with this absolutely gorgeous Sweet Pea Stamps image by Meredith Dillman called Fanciful Notions. I absolutely love all of the sweet sewing details she has included like the scissor topped wings and the pin cushion hat. So charming! I coloured this with Prismacolor pencils, using a few Polychromos for shading the skin. The background of the oval behind her was coloured with gray Pan Pastel. Small half pearls were added to the scalloped edge and tiny ones to a few of the pin heads. the image was then fussy cut, matted with black cardstock, and trimmed again. It was then popped up on foam squares.

The background began as a piece of heavy weight designer paper which was pale green in colour and quite plain in design.I added stamping of a safety pin which has totally been covered but trust me, it's there and it's cute...lol. The TH Measured stencil was used with new Sprout Memento ink to add the tape measure detail in a few places. Pieces were ripped from a clothing pattern tissue and adhered to the background with gel medium. A doily and a half were also layered behind where the image would go. A zigzag stitching border was stamped with Bamboo Leaves Memento ink to provide a frame. Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paint was mixed with white embossing paste and scraped through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil to create more dimension and texture.

A length of lace topped with a row of pearls were adhered below the row of stencilling. Overlapping that is a mannequin cut with a TH die and popped up on foam tape. It was also edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink to age it and allow it to stand out against the background.The sweet image was layered over that and a resist chipboard heart coloured with Spun Sugar Distress ink was tucked between the image and the mannequin. A green ribbon was tied in a bow and adhered at the base of the mannequin. Two tiny white buttons with the shanks removed were adhered to the bottom left corner and three pearl headed corsage pins were poked into the foam tape behind the image to balance the top left corner and repeat the sewing theme.

One of the final touches was the sentiment which was printed on kraft paper, torn around, and inked with Vintage Photo to age it. White pencil was used for the stitching. The edges of the background were inked with Peeled Paint Distress ink and then the page was matted with black cardstock to frame it and provide contrast. I almost cannot create a project without black in there somewhere :) Besides, it ties in with the other bits of black scattered around the spread.

Thanks for visiting today. When you get a minute, check out the other fabulous projects created with Sweet Pea Stamps and posted on One Sweet Challenge's blog. We would love to have you join us for our Pastels with Lace, Ribbons, and Pearls theme this month.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie