Lo' and Behold - A Shabby Attempt

You know two weeks have flown by when another PaperPlay Challenge is ready to go out and it is my turn to put something together. We are a friendly bunch of crafters who love to see your work! This week you could be the lucky winner to do shopping spree at Simon Says. With $15 I could buy a bunch of fun embellies, or several bottles of mists, or add to my distressed ink collection, or acquire a new stamp set. The choices are endless! All it takes is throwing in a card into this week's challenge to play along! This week's theme is Shabby Chic / Vintage.

Here my inspiration (be kind and don't laugh too hard).


Stamps: (Afternoon Tea, Afternoon Tea Sentiments) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Key Ingredient Kit - Penelope's Potpourri) Taylored Expressions; (Basic Card Stock - Cream) Recollections
Ink: (Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Sugar Spun; Jenni Bowlin Studio - No. 11 Brown Sugar) Ranger; (Pigment Ink - Gold) Recollections
Embellishments: (Round Paper Doily - Style 1) Dudley & Tyler; (Soft-core Color Pencils) Prismacolor; (Mister Huey - Calico White) Studio Calico; (Key Ingredient Kit Ribbon - Penelope's Potpourri, Morning Meadows) Taylored Expressions; (Mini Clothespins - Natural) Canvas Corp

If anyone knows me, I cringe at Shabby and Vintage. I had this blank stare at my crafting table, similar to this experience. So what did I do? Grab my trusty Vintage Photo and had a party inking up my card stock.  I'm in love with the card stock in my Taylored Expression kit, since it has a tad of texture. The inking was actually just another form of procrastination, cause after that was done, I was thinking "Now what?"



So then I pulled a tea cup stamp and a doily, and procrastinated a tad longer with coloring my cup and distressing the doily with a sweet pink color (apologies for the photo, but the pink is too subtle to pick up). The doily looked to bright and clean, so I used a paper towel and inked it up with my gold, squishy pigment ink pad and "shabbied" up the doily. Now what?

Well there is always that misting addiction to quench! So out came the Calico White - another form of procrastinating. But oh so fun to flick specks of white onto the card!

At this point I have ran out of procrastinating material and decided to rummage my stash. After what seems many hours (but really only ten minutes), I found this fun dainty thread ribbon in my Key Ingredient ribbon stash. I mounted this delicate piece of ribbon onto a bigger, wider green/brown ribbon and decided to hang my tea cup at a whimsical angle. To tie the colors in a little better, I inked up the dainty ribbon with some Sugar Spun distress ink to match the doily. Can you see that slight pink sheen in the picture above?

After all that hard work (LOL) was done, the card still seemed "naked." The dangling teacup actually looked kind of depressing - so lonely, so empty, so abandoned. That's when my eyes caught the "Let's Have Tea" sentiment. And before anyone could blink twice, the sentiment was stamped onto the card to transform the sad lil' tea cup into a happy, inviting one. And that is how this little card came into creation, and why this little crafter is breathing a huge sigh of relief.

If you're still reading, thanks for doing so! I hope this was helpful for other crafters that feel as daunted by shabby & vintage as I do. It's a roadmap of my thoughts to show you that a non-shabby, non-vintage chick can attempt a shabby-vintage attempt and come out "not too shabby" after all - or so the dear PaperPlay sisters tell me. Or maybe they are just too nice to dampen my "E is for effort" spirit...;)