Shimmer Chalks - "Heart Flower"

I am going to take you through my thought process and the steps I used to create “Heart Flower”.  I did not have an end result in mind when I started to create it -- most of the time I don't.    I like to see where each step is going to lead me and just let the creative process take over.  I’ll usually start with something basic (in this case I knew I wanted to use Shimmer Chalks somewhere on the card).  But as to what it was going to look like when I was finished, I had no idea when I started.  

  To begin, I put a piece of blank white cardstock that is 8 ½” x 11 ½” on the table before me.  Then I got out my Shimmer Chalk Palette #2.  (A supply list is at the end).  Using finger daubers, I rubbed color into the cardstock in a circular motion.  The sponge on the end of the applicator  is about 1/2" in diameter.  A tiny applicator, gives you more of a colored pencil effect, which is not what I wanted in this case.  I started off  with easy pressure and picked up more color for greater color intensity where desired.  When working with chalks, it is best to start off lightly because you can always add more color, but you are not able to take it away once the pigment has been released into the paper.  The dots of color are about the size of nickels.  I added the first color, then the second and a third, being careful not to overlap, because I wanted each color to be distinct..  This photo shows you how my paper looked at this stage;

To fill in the white areas,  I used  gold and bronze chalks and it looked like the next photo.  The Shimmer Chalks have a translucent quality about them and resemble PearlEx with the way they catch the light.  It is impossible to get a scan that shows this because the bright light of the scanner just bounces off.  In a recent class I taught, I had asked one of the ladies seated at the other end of the table to hold up her project so I could see it and it had a “glow” about it. 

Now, I am ready to do some stamping.  I used  a  heart flower stamp and black StazOn permanent ink;

 ;

After stamping, I used a plastic template that I made out of Mylar to draw an outline around the images I liked.  I used a light lead pencil line.  This tracing is 2” x 3”, so I knew I needed to come up with something else to add to the finished card to bring it up to the standard size of 2 ½” x 3 ½”.  Notice that I did not trace around all of the images.  It’s because I did not like the way the stamped image turned out on some.  After stamping randomly, it occurred to me that I could have run my chalked sheet through my printer “before” stamping and printed a grid on the paper with the shape of the ATC. I would have been able to get nine cards from the sheet, provided I liked my stamping on all 5.  But fear not – I plan on using the paper scraps for punching some shapes to use on another project.

I decided that black paper would look nice behind the chalked image.   I got out 5 ATC Backs and colored the edges with a black Sharpie marker.  I always color the edges of my card bases with a matching color to give the card a more finished appearance.  So, then I glued the backs to the black cardstock, using carpet tape (this stuff from the hardware store really holds and is not expensive).  I ended up with this;

I cut around the cards and glued my image to the black side.  But still,  I thought  it looked a little plain.  What can I do to jazz this up a little?  The solution for me was to add some ¼" Wonder Tape around the edges and dip the card in black micro beads. I used a Tidy Tray for this step and it caught all the loose beads and made it easy to put the excess back in the container.  

 But again, I just did not feel it was complete and needed a little something more.  So, I went to my "sticker stash" and found some tiny gold metallic outline hearts and put one in the lower right corner.

Now, I feel it is complete. 

Supplies;

White Cardstock purchased at Wal-Mart in the computer section

Plastic Mylar for templates was purchased at my local fabric store

Sponge Daubers by Tsukineko Set of three ($3.20)  YRSP

Shimmer Chalk Palette #2 by Craf-T Products ($8.98) YRSP

Staz-On  ($7.89) YRSP

Rubber stamp used C4130 Flowering Heart W/Texture by IO  ($6.50) YRSP

ATC Backs come 36 to a pack ($9.60) YRSP

Tidy Tray ($6.99) YRSP

Note:  YRSP stands for Your Rubber Stamp Place.   For order information, click here

For the ATC Supplies page on this site, click here

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