Oooh La La!! French Corset Card!

Boy I wish I looked this good in my underwear! And red too, Wooo Hooo! Can you tell how much fun I had making this card! I sat down to make cards and I really didn’t feel like crafting but DH took the kids out to play at the mall playground so I felt like I just HAD to take advantage of so much alone time! So I started with
the card you saw in the last post, easy peasy and then, browsing my blog list, I saw this card! It reminded me I needed to use a French Boutique set I’ve had for ages but barely used. After choosing the stamp I looked through a tin full of French labels I’ve had for ages which I save for cards where they will really shine. This one was just begging to be used on such a girlie card. I shabbied it up a bit with caramel and cocoa ink applied with Cut n Dry Foam. The background was inspired by recent videos on Jennifer McGuire. Trust me, I am not even going to link to a specific video because you HAVE to watch them ALL! Even if you aren’t a technique fan, these videos are AWESOME! I used one of her resist techniques to create my background. Start by stamping a background pattern on your cardstock, then stamp a semi-solid or solid image in Versamark and heat emboss with clear embossing powder. You can stop there but if you sponge a darker ink over, the clear embossed areas will resist the sponged ink and you get a background like mine! If you don’t love the shiny areas, put a couple layers of paper towel over the card/background and iron, the embossing powder will melt into the paper towel and your design will be much less shiny!

I used Copics on the corset itself, I had a lot of fun colouring this one, I am actually REALLY pleased with the results. Copics do take a lot of practice but they are so worth the effort!!!! I started with a medium pink, covered it with red, then  shaded with deep red. Imagining this fabric is a bit shiny, I left a highlight where the fabric folds into the seams. I couldn’t decide what to do with the bottom of the dressform which had a wire ‘cage’ extending the bodice making it longer. The lines were too thin to cut out around and I didn’t like the white paper showing so I just cut them off. The skirt was fun to do, I had a roll of tulle left from my wedding! (1997!) so I cut off a piece, stitched a quick running stitch along the edge and inserted it into a slit I cut at the lower edge of the corset. I had cut almost all the way along the dropped waistline just leaving bits attached at each edge so the tulle fit in there perfectly. I attached the dressform with a double layer of extra tall foam dots so it is about 1/2” above the main card. The pearls are tiny beads meant to be strung so I placed them carefully so no holes where facing up. The ribbon is hand dyed and painted seam binding tape from Kim Hesson, her Etsy store is Miss Alayneeah (get it, miscellanea!), wasn’t it just perfect for this card??

  This card screamed, “Add Bling!!” so I put rhinestones all over, so pretty! I added clear Spica pen to all of the flowers and leaves on the sticker, outlining them, then added more to the roses and the lilacs. I also glittered the oval around the sticker, the dots on the corset and the dressform stand to make it look more like metal. I even managed to get an angle that shows the sparkle and bling. WAY COOL!!! You might have to enlarge it to see it though.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Fashion Boutique-can’t remember! I thought I had transferred the company name to my newly organized CD cases but I guess not!, flower-Hero Arts, script-Hero Arts?
Ink: Memento brown, perfect plum, cocoa, caramel-SU!
Paper: pale plum CS-SU!, Taylored Expressions 
Accessories: tiny pearls, tulle-stash, ribbon-see above, rhinestones-Zva, Clear Spica pen, foam dots-stash, clear EP-SU!, Copics, sticker-Cavallier Printing, Shimmer Mist-Luminarte
Technique: emboss resist