Vintagelicious

I've been having tons of fun with my new set of watercolor pencils; I really love how the images turn out, especially the "vintage" ones. I've become really intrigued by the vintage style long-loved by cardmakers, but I don't tend to use enough embellishments... But I've gained enough confidence to really enjoy "distressing" paper, so I tried my hand at a few of vintage-y cards.

There are a ton of stripes and/or dots challenges out there right now, but my first stop had to be Delicious Doodles' Challenge #10, sponsored by TLC Creations. I totally heart TLC Creations' vintage images and wordart, so I decided to use one of each for this challenge. [Skip to more about this card]

This week's "Theme" challenge at CDAC is "to make a birthday card suitable for one friend to give another, looking like it was made at least 100 years ago, in other words, really old." Hmm, quite the challenge! I made a card with the gorgeous freebie from Nicecrane Designs, but it didn't look very old, so I made another.

Using the Color Throwdown combo for guidance, I colored the image with watercolor pencils (not easy with a digi image...I had a lot of issues with the printer ink spreading), aged a brown mat that I had around, and dry-embossed a lace pattern onto some light green ("kiwi".) I also wrapped a piece of diamond-patterned paper over the card crease. Everything's sanded, and aged with Antique Linen distress ink. The ribbon and button were things I was saving for a special project.

Theme: CDAC Holiday/Special Occasion Challenge #cdachsoc16
Color: Color Throwdown #126: Early Espresso, Kiwi Kiss, Marina Mist, Old Olive
Digi stamp: Incredible Friends DS2 by Ignacio for Nicecrane Designs
Supplies: decorative papers by Paper Studio, Recollections cardstocks, Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink, StazOn ink, HP printer & ink, Cricut + SCAL, Fiskars papercutter, scallop scissors, circle punch, and texture plate + tool, found ribbon & button, emery board and nail file, Loew-Cornell watercolor pencils

I had printed out a couple of these Butterfly Fairy digi stamps by TLC Creations, to color at my leisure. Between the Spots & Stripes challenge and the sweet color combo at Color Dare, I knew I had the project for them. I sprayed one of the copies with a light spritz-and-a-half of yellow spray ink, which has a nice glimmer as well. I cut the details out of the second copy, and again used watercolor pencils. I especially like how using yellow for the wings makes them look almost translucent.

I just couldn't resist colorizing the lovely sentiment digi, which was a snap in Photoshop (Layers/Layer Style/Color Overlay). And I can't tell you how tickled I was to find these striped "plum" brads! There's a lot going on here, but I find it all comes together in a sweet, sunny way. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone!

Update 2/4/11: This card was featured, in incredible company, on Create with TLC.

Theme: Delicious Doodles Challenge #10: Spots and/or Stripes
Color: Color Dare #94: Pretty in Pink, Pear Pizazz, Perfect Plum
Digi stamps: Vintage Butterfly Fairy and Nothing is Impossible by TLC Creations
Supplies: decorative papers by Paper Studio, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, Recollections cardstocks, HP printer & ink, Cricut + SCAL, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors, Offray ribbon, Kurio brads, Loew-Cornell watercolor pencils, Inkadinkado spray ink