they said to use paint

Whew! I have never used acrylic paints and this challenge inspired me to open up a squeeze bottle that I got at Michael’s for sixty-five cents.  Who could resist that?  But it’s been sitting for some months because I was a bit fearful of it.  This card started out to be something entirely different.  It was going to be an all white embossed sympathy card using the Partial Die Cut technique that was featured at SCS Wednesday Technique Tutorial.   But, alas, when I ran it through my big shot, it had all kinds of smudges on the front piece.  Being the thrifty crafter that I am, I could not in good conscience, throw away a full card size 110 lb quality paper.

THAT’s when I remembered the Monday Challenge at Simon Says  Out came the paints and stencil by Heidi Swapp.  Okie dokie, I wasn’t prepared for how BOLD and heavy those butterflies were going to look or how the paint would seep under the openings on the stencil. Oops, this card is getting worse not better.  Now, what to do. Oh yes, I do remember someone recently writing that they used gesso to tone down something painted.  Let’s try that.  ahh, much better but still looks kind of sloppy.

I really wanted to lighten this up and give the impression of lots of butterflies in a meadow.  I spritzed some shimmer mist through a dotted stencil then took the stencil itself and pressed it right over the butterflies.  Now add a couple of sprigs of green.  It’s getting better.  I used the two die cut butterflies from Simon and glued the top one onto the already partially die cut butterfly up there.  I took my gold pen and glitzed him up a bit and NOW I can stamp this beautiful sentiment on with my new Simon Says Premium Dye Ink.  I love those inks.  And I am glad for the challenge that helped me to create something beautiful out of something that was a disaster.