Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #87 Arty

For this fortnight's challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, Edna wants us to get Arty.

 

In other words, she (and we Sistahs) would like to see a piece of mixed media work - and we'd love it if you could make it snarky too!

As you probably know, I really struggle with mixed media. I never seem to be able to work out which direction I'm heading in, or how to steer a course to where I want to end up. I like to have a clear picture in my mind of what the finished item will look like and how I'm going to get there, and I'm still too inexperienced with mixed media techniques to be confident in how they will turn out. However, I got myself inky and messy and came up with this:

First of all I gave myself some direction by deciding how the card would look if I was making a simpler one - I would have put the butterfly, on a couple of layers, in the middle of a large die cut, and added a heart or flower in the corner. With that in mind, I found it easier to focus on where I was heading.

I covered an A5 card with a piece of Bo Bunny paper; the grid lines and some of the green distressing were part of the design on the paper but I added a little more green ink to define the edges. Then I stamped the mesh in green and the diamond basket weave in grey - two stamps from a very old Linda Luckin set. Next I used a brass stencil and texture paste to add a motif to diagonally opposite corners, and when it was dry, inked it with Distress Stain.

I die cut several butterflies using the good old Cuttlebug butterfly die and some French text paper, then inked them and added liquid pearls to the bodies of two of them. I added colour and texture to my die cut shape using the faux letterpress technique, inking a magazine cover gift embossing folder before using it to emboss the shape. Then I layered up mesh, hessian, the label, butterflies, some text printed vellum and corrugated kraft, adding a few more liquid pearl drops to the kraft layer.

The metal heart is placed where it would have been in a simpler version of the card, and finally I couldn't resist adding this stamped Dylusions sentiment because the message it conveys is absolutely the total opposite of my own experience when making this!

I  found that despite my expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed making this and I think I'll be delving into the realms of mixed media more often in future.

I would like to share this with the following challenges:
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge - H for hearts
Sweet Stampin' - Lots of Layers
Country View Challenges - Hearts
Mix it Up - Anything Goes/Stamping