A Tale of Two Cards: Shabby Chic vs. CAS

Good Friday! Well not THE Good Friday, but it is a good Friday! Because... well... it's Friday! And it seems like I'm on the mend from my 5 1/2 week stint of bronchitis. The doc gave me a new round of antibiotics AND some steroids. So either I am getting better OR I am turning into the incredible hulk... one of the two!

And now - back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

I am absolutely pumped about the cards I get to show off today because I've been having so much fun playing in my craft room lately. I'm in one of those really good cardmaking zones. My mojo is BACK!

I am stronger than I think. Oh wait... Just kidding. 

This card isn't ABOUT me! 

This card is about the new STAMPlorations challenge. We've got a killer sketch and a brand new theme and we'd LOVE it if you played along so we could award you some fun prizes! 

On the first card I followed the sketch to a capital T. Ok, Ok, the sentiment isn't exactly in the right place but creative liberties are my favorite kind of liberties. 

For this card, I did some stenciling with glossy black embossing paste over a piece of Graphic 45 newsprint. 

I used the Botanical Lush ARTplorations stencil and masked off an angle using some scrap paper. Then I tied a big, bold black bow and found a cool old vintage earring to weave in between the layers of the bow. OOoooo shiny! I finished off the look with an embossed sentiment from the SENTIMENT BUILDERS: Love set.

I'm going to link this up to Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes Challenge. 

Now for those of you who closely follow card making challenges, you're probably looking at this and saying..... HEY that looks familiar. (at least I hope so). 

One of my fave cardmaking challenges, The Card Concept, is having an blog-o-versary challenge and I instantaneously fell in LOVE with their inspiration image. 

Since it's their 2nd anniversary, I thought I'd make TWO cards showcasing different styles. My first card was clean and simple.... or Classy Elegance, I can't tell which. 

After peering at it, I thought "Self, why not do more of your signature mixed media shabby chic style, too?" And so I did:

I started this card off with a very similar base, except instead of stenciling through the stencil to create some texture, I used all the embossing paste still left on the stencil and pressed it onto the paper to create a reverse image. 

Once the texture paste dried, I added some splatters (because that's the STAMPlorations theme this month - remember?!) using Distress Spray Stains. 



This was the Picket Fence splatter layer, and then I went on to add some Black Soot splatters, too. I added a wealth of flowers and a sentiment from the Fond Expressions 2 set. 

I'm also going to add this card to the Vintage Stamping Challenges - Lots of Layers challenge.

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Thanks for popping by! I hope you'll play along at STAMPlorations this month because I'd LOVE to see what you make.

This weekend, my brother is coming for a visit and I'll get to see two of my adorable nieces and one of my adorable nephews. I'm ready to show off my new house (even though it's a cluttery box-filled zoo right now) and give them all the grand tour! Don't worry - I'm working on my new craft room and as soon as that's finished in a couple of weeks I'll be giving YOU all a grand tour, too!