A Bit Of Brown . . . . . Vintage Style!

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show is to make a project and include some Brown. I particularly love using walnut stain distress ink and coffee archival ink colours in my work, so I knew where to start with this project. In my previous post I used one of my favourite stamp images and couldn't resist bringing her out again this time! I love Lynne Perrella stamp designs but only own one set at the moment, so they may feature here from time to time (the others are ALL on my wish list of course!).

I wanted to make something with a very vintage feel and decided to make another book mark. I love making these as I feel they can be beautiful and functional at the same time.

See what you think of my latest piece:

The finished book mark. No picture showing the individual elements I'm afraid - I was busy assembling the piece when I remembered I hadn't taken the first photo!

The top of the piece is constructed from the stamped Lynne Perrella image in coffee archival,coloured with antique linen with some walnut distress ink on the edges. The face was bleached out using a water brush to make the features stand out and to give that 'vintage' look of porcelain skin.

The cheeks were lightly blushed with victorian velvet distress marker and covered with glossy accents to make them a feature.

The 'hat' was made from die cut flowers. Each flower was stamped with a floral image, coloured with victorian velvet distress ink, edges inked with walnut distress ink  and finally covered with glossy accents. When dry, the hat was assembled with brads and wired beads used as additional detailing.

The background was stamped using various distress ink colours and was kept as vintage looking as possible by stamping lightly and with randomly applied levels of colour. Paper ageing 'spots' were added using a stamped image to continue the vintage feel. The flower was made using the same techniques as the hat. The little sentiment hopefully says 'Save My Place'. I opted to print it out in Italian as it is such a romantic language and I felt the whole project has an historic, Italian feel. I did the translation on my phone so fingers crossed it's accurate!

I stamped the main image twice and layered them to give more detail. The little faces were again bleached using water brush to give them prominence. Note the inked edges which really help with the vintage feel. I wanted to add ribbon as a finishing touch but it looked out of place. The natural jute thread looked more in keeping with the theme and far more authentic.