Vintage LaBlanche Birthday ~ Challenging!

Hello and happy Wednesday! Yesterday I got to play just for the fun of it and I'm not too sure about what came out, but here it is anyway. I wanted to play the challenge over at Joan's Gardens. The challenge is:

• Window Top Card ( an opening in the top of the card with the design on the inside)
• Add three colors of flowers for the focal point.
• A Birthday card

I also wanted to play one of my favorite challenges, the Shabby Tea Room, which was to be inspired by this photo:

This image is new to me. It's from LaBlanche and it's a silicone stamp I bought from my DT sisters new store... The Craft's Meow. Lisa has a link to a great video on coloring these images with blending stumps and distress inks. I did not feel I had the right colors of inks to do that so I tried for one of those sepia toned cards with just a hint of color. Not sure I achieved that either, but I used SU! Chalks to color this. I then spritzed heavily with Glimmer Mist in Gold to set the chalks, then I layered on different colors of distress inks with a sponge, hitting some places and avoiding others. I went right over the image with some of the colors, and just did the edges with others. I spritzed again with Glimmer Mist when done sponging. IRL there is a gorgeous glow to this picture but I cannot capture that. I used the three colors for my flowers around this sweet vintage image.

Next I had to create a card large enough to frame it within a cut out. I wanted it to look like a vintage metal frame. I chose this Spellbinders Label 11 to cut my window from SU! Basic Black. Next I used metallic cream paint and just rubbed it on again in various shades. Then I ran it through with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, matching it up in the middle as it took two passes to do it. At this point I was pretty happy with it but then I started embellishing it and now I'm not so sure. I added a vellum butterfly from the Bridal Dept. at Michael's, brushed gold corners from a very old Spellbinders corner set, and made a little nosegay of ribbon blossoms ( I made the lavender one) and seam binding lace to pick up the flower colors again. I added a tiny tag with my birthday sentiment on it. In looking at it now, I'm not sure I like the embellies, but this was just playing around so you get to see my experiment. LOL! I love these vintage images and hope to play some more to achieve just the look I'm after with them.

This is the inside of the card. Any message would need to be written on the back where I would add a mat of cream or tan. The stamp is fairly large so using it for the cut out window didn't leave me much room for a message inside.

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Paper Take Weekly - Anything Goes + Optional - Something New
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Crazy Challenge - Just Add Flowers
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Paper Playtime - Anything Goes
Stamp-N-Doodle - Shabby Chic or Vintage
There's Magic in the Air - Lets use flowers
Crafty Pad - Flowers
I Did It Creations - Anything Goes
Scrappy Frogs - Flowers and Lace


Thanks for taking a look at my little "experiment". Hopefully I'll get better at this! LOL! Have a great day!