DOstamper STARS Challenge: Home Sweet Home DSC #185

Welcome to this week's challenge!  The third week of our challenge rotation is always called "Home Sweet Home" because we are asked to use a specific piece of home decor as our inspiration point.  We can use any or all aspects of the image provided...color scheme, theme, shapes, textures, images, whatever speaks to us.  This week's home decor item is in the image below and I zoned in on some of the colors and the butterflies & botanicals. 

One style of art work I have always admired but have never felt successful at doing is the layered, vintage look.  But, challenges are all about breaking out of your comfort zone, right? So I decided to give it a shot, and I'm pretty please. The images from the Butterfly Basics set made this card so, so easy!  If you are reluctant like me, give it a try - it's so much more fun and easy than you would ever think possible.

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryid=12400&dbwsdemoid=2055485

I started with a rectangular Very Vanilla cardstock panel.  I used Early Espresso ink on a sponge to age the edges.  Next, I used Crumb Cake ink and a retired French script background stamp to create the background.  After that, I used more Crumb Cake ink and another sponge to apply some more aging to the whole panel in small circular motions.  After that I just started layering on the various images from the Butterfly Basics stamp set working from lightest to darkest.  The colors of ink I used were Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Early Espresso.  Next came the sentiment stamped in Early Espresso (you can use any sentiment, mine is from the bonus set I received a few months ago as a My Paper Pumpkin subscriber).  Once I was done stamping the panel, I matted it on Early Espresso cardstock, and an Old Olive card that I had aged with my sponge and Early Espresso ink.  Finally, I stamped the butterfly image on Very Vanilla using Crushed Curry, cut the image out by hand, adhered it with some Dimensionals and topped it off with some pearls, which I thought fit the vintage theme a bit better than diamond rhinestones, which I had considered.

As you may know, these Thursday challenges are sponsored by my upline, and anyone in her group of demonstrators is invited participate.  This week, we are lucky to have so many talented ladies share their interpretation of this image....go check them out by clicking on their names below:

• Connie Plaumann
• Sharon Bennett
• Jan Carlson
• Cathy Peck
• Joan Weidling
• Dawn Olchefske 
• Judy Strickling 
• Debbie Sollinger   
• Michelle Harrington- you are here
• Angela O'Neill