Letters!

I was so thrilled to be one of Country View Challenges "Top 3" winners for September, but also honored to be asked to be a Guest Design Team member for November's challenge of "Letters."  Thank you Country View Challenges and here we go with my project and if you want, you can stop over there and give them a "Hello" and learn all the details for the current challenge.

It is so interesting how a project starts out and what you have in mind when you start! Believe it or not, this started out with a Christmas theme in mind! It was going to be "letters to Santa," but I kept drawing blanks. Well not really blanks, but how I wanted to use my new Santa Stamp was too much like something I had already seen. Not that my friend, Vada would have cared, but this needed to be very original!



Now with the embossed "letter" background, I was determined to use it Christmas or not! I used Distress inks and then spritzed some water. Next the raised areas were hit with Coffee Archival, distressed and curled up some edges.

The woman's face was stamped, watercolored and masked off for tag inking! A little white acrylic paint dot for the eye highlight, using a stylus.

Added a little "letter" stenciling, stamped some post scripts and those artsy faces to blend in the background. Keeping in the "letter" theme, I was going for a love letter type theme at this point. Hey it is my mind! I think they are both thinking of each other!

The top "letter" layer was first inked and then the actually stamp covered with Distress markers, torn around the edges and shaded. Added a little airmail stamping to this.

Did a second marker stamping for extra dimension on the "L" for "letters."

What a time I had cutting off the heavy duty pin that went with the winged heart! Actually called the man to the rescue. The heart was colored with alcohol inks and the word band and key colored to match the bronze look of the wings.

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you will join in the current "Letters" challenge at CVC, so pop on over there for more inspiration and all the details! Have a wonderful week!

Stamps: Tim Holtz, Classics 3, Classics4, Classics 5 and various older releases for postage
Inks: Archival Red Geranium Coffee (Faces, Faces, Postage, Air Mail, CB letters
Background colors: Distress Antique Linen, Old Paper, (letter panel), Vintage Photo, Black Walnut, Pine Needles, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Forrest Moss, Tattered Rose for skin color, Water colors Barn Door (lips) Peeled Paint (eyes)
Markers: Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Black Soot Peeled Paint, Pine Needles
Alcohol Inks: Pesto, Latte and Gold Fixative